Adaptive Internet integration of field bus systems

Field buses are used to network sensors, actuators, and control devices inside automation systems. The Internet integration of field bus systems enables information from these devices to be exchanged across enterprises and businesses. An essential prerequisite to this aim is the interoperability of field bus systems with external systems and applications. Therefore, many efforts are made to establish a common information exchange standard which all field bus systems are supposed to support. However, the longer these efforts are ongoing the less it seems that they will ever yield the expected breakthrough. The present paper introduces an substantially different approach to interoperability. Field bus systems may keep their individual application interfaces and data exchange formats. All the same, external infrastructures do not have to be redesigned to match the specific needs of certain field bus systems. Rather, field bus systems become capable of adapting the information exchange flexibly according to the needs of the outside environment.