Smart Meter Technology and Development Directions Overview

After the development of the DDZ-S series instrument featuring the electric unit combination meter featuring the simulation technology and the digital-analogue mixing technology, the Honeywell Company of the United States took the lead in introducing a new generation of intelligent pressure change to the manufacturing industry in 1983. The transmitter, which marks the transition of analog instruments to digital smart meters. At the time, such smart transmitters had the characteristics of high accuracy, long-range verification, and flexible configuration, and informed the user that although the initial purchase cost was high, it would be compensated by lower operation and maintenance costs. In the ensuing ten years, smart pressure transmitters from other companies abroad have also been adopted on a number of production lines, including: Rosemount, Foxboro, Yokogawa, Siemens, E&H, Bailey, Fuji, and ABB. However, due to the lack of high-speed intelligent communication standards, users' unrestricted requirements for high-precision monitoring, and relatively weak service mechanisms such as training, smart applications at that time were not optimistic, accounting for only about 20% of the market.

With the rapid development of microelectronics, computers, networks and communication technologies and the continuous improvement of comprehensive automation, smart meters are now widely used in the field of industrial automation, and their technology has also developed rapidly in the past two decades. . At present, foreign smart meters occupy the largest share of the international application market. How to combine the current experience of industrial applications of smart meters and quickly track the development of international smart frontier technologies for the development of smart meters in China has become a major problem in the revitalization of national smart instrumentation.

Smart Meter Advantages and Features

The wide application of smart meters in the field of industrial automation benefits from its outstanding technical advantages and features, such as its high stability, high reliability, high precision, and easy maintenance. Take the smart transmitter as an example, the smart meter has the following advantages:

(1) High precision The smart transmitter has high accuracy. With the built-in microprocessor, the influence of static pressure and temperature changes on the detection element can be measured in real time. Through data processing, nonlinearity is corrected, and hysteresis and reproducibility are compensated to make the output signal more accurate. In general, the accuracy is ±0.1% of the maximum range, and the digital signal can reach ±0.075%

(2) The powerful smart transmitter has a variety of complex computing functions, relying on the internal microprocessor and memory, can perform square, temperature and pressure compensation and a variety of complex operations.

(3) Wide measuring range The maximum transmitter ratio is 10:1, while the smart transmitter can reach 40:1 or 100:1. The migration amount can reach 1900% and -200%, reducing the transmitter's Specifications, enhanced versatility and interchangeability, bring a lot of convenience to users.

(4) Strong communication function The smart transmitter can realize the operation of the communicator. The communicator can be inserted into the corresponding jack of the transmitter at the site, or the communicator can be connected to the transmitter in the control room. On the signal line of the device, zero point and span adjustment and change are performed. Some transmitters have both analog and digital output methods (such as the HART protocol), laying the foundation for fieldbus communication.

(5) Perfect self-diagnosis function Through the communicator, you can find the fault result information of the transmitter self-diagnosis.

Suggestions for the future development direction of smart meter technology and its applications

(1) The degree of intelligence of smart meters needs to be further improved. The degree of intelligence of smart meters indicates the breadth and depth of their applications. Current smart meters are still at a lower level of primary intelligence, but some special processes and Applications place higher demands on the intelligence of the instrument. Current intelligent theories, such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, wavelet theory, chaos theory, etc., have potential applications, which means that we need to There is also the ability to combine advanced applications with the need to develop advanced, intelligent instrumentation.

(2) The stability and reliability of smart meters are subject to long-term and continuous attention. The stability and reliability of the operation of meters are the primary concern of users. Smart meters are no exception. With the continuous development of smart meter technologies, new types of smart Instruments will also be put on the market one after another, which requires us to always grasp a principle: the application of each new smart technology is yet to be tested, whether users have the confidence and courage to be the “first person to eat crabs”. This requires the parallel development of security and reliability technologies.

(3) Potential applications of smart meters need to be maximized. Practical applications in the field of industrial automation have not yet maximized the capabilities of smart meters, but more than half of their overall functionality has been applied. The reason is that the overall architecture of the control system neglects the technical advantages such as fieldbus, which requires the instrument manufacturers and users to establish a good partnership, strengthen long-term cooperation, promote short-term investment to promote long-term benefits, through the establishment of "smart instrument + field bus" The control system architecture establishes an optimized investment concept and achieves a harmonious and win-win goal.

(4) Continuing to increase the development of domestic smart instrumentation The smart instrumentation technology and application will also need to go through a relatively long and mature period of development. However, for the domestic smart instrumentation technology and product development, it is already facing greater challenges. This situation calls for The domestic instrument industry has jointly explored the development of smart meters, responded to the fierce international competition market, shouldered the historical mission of the instrument industry, and adhered to the close integration of production, learning, and research under increasingly favourable national and government support policies, and continued to increase domestic demand. Smart meter development investment.

In addition to the basic extensions, the hardware circuits of smart meters are generally equipped with acquisition circuits, displays, buttons, and printers. Software acquisition, acquisition control, data processing, display, printing and so on.

According to the function division, the software of the intelligent instrument can be divided into three parts: preparation program, key function program and system control program.