A system is provided to conduct communication in a facility with equipment in hazardous and safe areas. The system includes at least one field device in a hazardous area of the facility; one or more controllers, located in a safe area of the facility, for managing the at least one field device; and a field barrier, between the safe and hazardous areas, to limit at least electrical energy, which is supplied to the at least one device, at or below an electrical energy threshold in the hazardous area. The system also includes a bus system to supply electrical energy across the field barrier to the at least one field device using electrical wiring and to enable communication between the at least one field device and the one or more controllers across the field barrier using one or more fiber optic cables.

A system is provided to conduct communication in a facility with equipment in hazardous and safe areas. The system includes at least one field device in a hazardous area of the facility; one or more controllers, located in a safe area of the facility, for managing the at least one field device; and a field barrier, between the safe and hazardous areas, to limit at least electrical energy, which is supplied to the at least one device, at or below an electrical energy threshold in the hazardous area. The system also includes a bus system to supply electrical energy across the field barrier to the at least one field device using electrical wiring and to enable communication between the at least one field device and the one or more controllers across the field barrier using one or more fiber optic cables.

A process control system includes an engineering system for planning automation components into the project for a technical plant, a simulation framework for modeling the process behavior of field devices, a simulation unit for virtualizing the communication behavior of the real field devices and also includes a plant planning tool for planning the process engineering components of the plant into the project by which the commissioning of field-related components and a secure commissioning of a process engineering plant are made possible.

A method for operating and controlling a machine installation by means of a graphical development environment (1), with which a controller on the machine side having programmable hardware modules (13, 14) situated there is graphically displayed, and via user-side inputs a programming sequence (24) is created in the development environment (1) and is supplied to the hardware modules (13, 14). According to the invention, an embedded web server (2) and an embedded browser (4) that communicates with same are integrated into the development environment (1), and the programming sequence (24) created in the development environment (1) is supplied to a field bus master (8), which supplies the programming sequence (24) via a field bus (10) to the station head (12) of a hardware station (11) in which the hardware modules (13, 14) which are programmable with the programming sequence (24) are situated and communicate with the station head (12).

The present disclosure relates to troubleshooting errors in a system of automation technology. For each of a plurality of field devices a current status and location information is stored in a database. The method also includes steps of providing a list of field devices and their location information for which a service status or diagnostic status has been recorded due to an error, and selecting one of the field devices in the list using the operating unit. The method also includes gathering a current location position of an operator using the operating unit, and locating the selected field device using a current location position of the operating unit and the location information of the selected field device using the operating unit. The method also includes connecting the selected field device to the operating unit and operating the selected field device using the operating unit in order to troubleshoot the error.

A process control system includes an engineering system for planning automation components into the project for a technical plant, a simulation framework for modeling the process behavior of field devices, a simulation unit for virtualizing the communication behavior of the real field devices and also includes a plant planning tool for planning the process engineering components of the plant into the project by which the commissioning of field-related components and a secure commissioning of a process engineering plant are made possible.

Methods and apparatus to display information via a process control device are disclosed herein. An example method includes acquiring first information via a first sensor of a first output device. The first information is related to an industrial process. The example method also includes communicating the first information from the first output device to a controller and receiving second information in the first output device from the controller. The second information is based on the first information. The example method also includes displaying the second information via a display of the first output device.

Methods and apparatus to display information via a process control device are disclosed herein. An example method includes acquiring first information via a first sensor of a first output device. The first information is related to an industrial process. The example method also includes communicating the first information from the first output device to a controller and receiving second information in the first output device from the controller. The second information is based on the first information. The example method also includes displaying the second information via a display of the first output device.