Understanding Smart Sensors - Nomads.usp

12Standards for Smart SensingThe laws of the Round Table were laid down and every knight of the fellowshipswore to keep the laws.—John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights12.1 IntroductionRecent industry efforts have focused on the definition, functionality, and communicationstandards for smart sensors. The goal is interoperability in a widerange of applications. The smart sensor, with appropriate local decisionmakingcapability, can act as a standalone sensor, communicate in a peer-topeerrelationship to other sensors and actuators, or act as an intelligent node ina network. Interoperability will allow the implementation of various interfacesacross different networks for network independent operation. Such effortshould expedite the development and transition to networked smart transducersas well as development and commercialization efforts for smart sensors andsmart actuators.12.2 Setting the Standards for Smart Sensors and SystemsIn 1993, the IEEE and the National Institute for Standards and Testing(NIST) initiated an activity that has led to the development of two acceptedand two proposed standards [1]:273