The Dictionary of Engineering An essential reference for all professional engineers, writers, and students, the Dictionary of Engineering covers 15,000 terms and concepts used in the major engineering disciplines, such as chemical, civil, design, industrial, mechanical, mining, acoustics, petroleum, and systems engineering.
Full list of industrial automation acronyms (Honeywell)
An online glossary of technical terms used by ABB. Here many useful terms here for the automation professional!
Acronyms and Initials Index
Used in Instrumentation, Controls and on the Net
Readout acknowledges the list published by the The Institute of
Measurement and Control in the Instrument Engineer's Yearbook which forms the original basis for this
list.
AICRO Association of Independent Contract Research Organisations
AIS Italian Instrument Society
ALM regards the process of delivering software as a continuously repeating cycle of inter-related steps: definition, design, development, testing, deployment and management. Each of these steps needs to be carefully monitored and controlled. (See Wikipedia on this)
ALM Application Lifecycle Management
AM Amplitude modulation
AMC Advanced management control
AMC Advanced mezzanine card
AMR Automatic meter reading
AMS Asset management solutions
AMT Advanced Manufacturing Technology (also AMT Association organised by Forbairt)
AnCO An Comhairle Oiliúna (now subsumed in FÁS)
ANN Artificial Neural Networks
ANSI American National Standards Institution
AP Application protocol
AP Application programming interface
APC Advanced process control
API Active pharmaceutical ingredients
API American Petroleum Institution
API Application programming interfaces
Asset Performance Management balances asset availability and utilization to optimize business value. APM uses dynamic performance measures to determine the business value of assets and the true value that they generate; manufacturers need not attempt to optimize availability or utilization independently.
ARM Advanced RISC Machine (was Acorn RISC Machine).
ARP Address resolution protocol
ASE Association for Science Education
ASI Actuator Sensor Interface
ASIC Application-specific integrated circuit
ASM Abnormal situation management
ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASN Abstract Syntax Notation
ASSP Application-specific standard products
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
AT adaptive technologies
ATCA Advanced telecom computing architecture
ATERIS Air Toxics Exposure & Risk Information System
ATM Asynchronous transfer mode
ATML defines a standard exchange medium for sharing information between components of automatic test systems. This information includes test data, resource data, diagnostic data, and historic data.
ATML
AUT Association of University Teachers
AVS American Vacuum Society
AWR Applied wave research
B
B2B Business to businesse
BAAS British Association for the Advancement of Science
BACT Best Available Control Technology
baluns Balanced/Unbalanced devices
BAM Batch activity management
BAS Building automation system
BASEEFA British Approvals Service for Electrical Equipment in Flammable Atmospheres
BAYS British Association of Young Scientists
BCR European Community Bureau of Reference
BCS British Calibration Service
BCS British Computer Society
BDI Business Directory International - Publishers of the InterNet Directory
BDM background debug mod
BEAMA British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association
BEM Big Emerging Markets
BEMS Building Energy Management System
BER Board for Engineers' Registration
BER Bit-error ratio (or rate)
BERT Bit error rate tester
BES Biological Engineering Society
BETX A mixture of benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylenes
CBMPE Confederation of British Manufacturers of Petroleum Equipment (now EIC, qv)
CCC Co-ordinating Committee: C.Eng
CCD Charge coupled device
CCDF Complimentary cumulative distribution function
CC-Link is an industrial field level network that processes both control and information data at high speed, to provide efficient, integrated factory and process automation. It provides high speed, deterministic communication linking a wide range of multi-vendor automation devices over a single cable.
The CC-Link Partner Association (CCLP)
CCGT Combined Cycle Gas Turbine
CC-Link Control & communication link
CCP CCP
CCPS Centre for Chemical Proces Safety (AIChE)
CCST Certified Control Systems Technician (ISA)
CCT Co-ordinating Committee: TEng, Eng Tech
CD Commitee draft (IEC)
CDN Coupling/decoupling network
CDRA Committee of Directors of Research Associations
CDV Committee draft voting
CDVEC City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee
CE Communauté Européenne (Conformity Europe).
CE Customer engineer
CEE Control Engineering Europe - Publication
CEM Continuous Emission Monitoring
CEMA Committee of European Promotors of Exhibitions of Measurement and Automation.
CEMS Continuous emissions-monitoring system
CEN Comité Européen de Normalisation
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (European Committee for
Electrotechnical Standardisation)
CEPC Committee of Engineering Professors' Conference
ECPD Engineer's Council for Professional Development (now ABET)
ECROC Engineering Council Regional Organisation Committee
ECSA Embedded Controller Security Assurance
EDA Electronic design automation
EDDL is a text-based language for describing the digital communication
characteristics of intelligent devices and equipment parameters in an
Operating System (OS) and Human Machine Interface (HMI)-neutral environment.
EDDL enables a host system manufacturer to create a single engineering
environment that can support any device, from any supplier, using any
communications protocol, without the need for custom software drivers for
each device type.
EN European Norm (Prefixed to European Standards numbers)
Eng Tech Engineering Technician
EOL End of Life
Eolas (Knowledge) The Irish Science & Technology Agency (Now subsumed in Forbairt)
EOS European Optical Society
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPC:It is a common form of contracting arrangement within the construction industry. Under an EPC contract, the contractor will design the installation, procure the necessary materials and construct it, either through own labour or by subcontracting part of the work. The contractor carries the project risk for schedule as well as budget in return for a fixed price, called Lump sum or LSTK depending on the agreed scope of work.
EPC Engineering Procurement and Construction
EPIC Exchange Price Information Computer (Code used in Stock Exchange dealings)
EPICS Experimental physics and industrial control system
EPTIS The European Proficiency Testing Information System.
ERA Electrical Research Association (now, formally ERA Technology Ltd.)
ERB Engineers' Registration Board (Formally part of CEI)
ERP Enterprise resource planning
ERM Enterprise resource management
ERO Engineering Regional Organisation
ERP Enterprise resource planning
ESA Embedded System Access
ESA Environmental Services Association
ESAC Electrical Systems and Controls
ESB Electricity Supply Board
ESD Emergency shutdown
ESF European Science Foundation
ESL: As system-on-chip (SoC) designs grow ever more complex, developers are
turning to electronic-system-level (ESL) solutions. Designed to improve
productivity, reduce risk and tackle growing design complexity, ESL
methodologies support mixed-language descriptions and IP reuse, and are
targeted at very complex SoC and heterogeneous designs. With ESL, hardware
and software can be developed and verified in parallel, problems can be
identified and resolved much earlier in the design flow, and tasks that used
to consume years of time and effort can now be completed in months. Under
the "ESL Now!" banner, more than twenty companies representing a wide
variety of ESL modeling, verification, software tools generation and
synthesis solutions, services and standards are banding together to spread
awareness of ESL.
The FDT (Field Device Tool) technique has been developed by a workgroup attended by representatives of more than 20 major process automation companies. The target was to find a solution (open interface) for instrument configuration and mangement by a central system engineering tool, no matter which communication protocol used. The result is a vendor and protocol independent FDT specification defining interfaces on the basis of internet technologies (ActiveX/COM, XML, ...). With this, instruments can be seamlessly integrated into engineering or stand-alone tools by using a software component, which is called DTM (Device Type Manager).
The DTM is provided by the device vendor, holds the entire information of the instrument and provides means to fully configure, maintain and manage the instrument via a comfortable, standardised graphical interface.
FIRST: Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, NH, FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. With the support of many of the world's most well-known companies, the non-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition for high school students and the FIRST LEGO League for children 9 to 14 years old.
FISCO compliance enables more power to be made available in each fieldbus segment, allowing the connection of further devices in the hazardous area. The advantage to the plant engineer is a simplified installation and less documentation needed to show the safety of the installation.
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FDT Field device tool (right)
FE Field emission
FEA Finite Element Analysis
FEANI Federation Europenne Associations National des Ingenieurs.
FEED Front end engineering design
FIRST For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (right)
ILAC International Laboratory Accreditation Conference
ILD Instrument loop diagram
ILM Independent Learning Modules (ISA Book Series)
ILM ISA's Industrial Learning Modules
IM Intelligent Measurement (function)
IMA Institute of Mathamatics and its Application
IMACS International Association for Mathamatics and Computers in Simulation (Member of
IMarE Institute of Marine Engineers
IMC Institute of Management Consultants
IMechE Institution of Mechanical Engineers
IMEKO International Measurement Confederation (Member of FIACC)
IMI Irish Management Institute
IMS Intelligent Manufacturing Systems.
IMT Industrial & Materials Technologies
IMV Integrated machine vision
INAB The Irish National Accreditation Board
INCOTERMS 2000 are internationally accepted commercial terms defining the respective roles of the buyer and seller in the arrangement of transportation and other responsibilities and clarify when the ownership of the merchandise takes place. They are used in conjunction with a sales agreement or other method of transacting the sale.
NETT Network for Environmental Technology Transfer
NFPA National Fire Protection Association
NIFAST National Industrial Fire and Safety Centre
NIHE National Institute for Higher Education (obsolete as these bodies are now Universities)
NIMR National Institute for Medical Research
NIR Near infrared
NISO National Industrial Safety Organisation
NIST National Institute of Standards & Technology
NITEC National Information Technology in Education Centre
Comprised of current students and alumni of Lee College, the Nexus of
Instrumentation Women (NIW) was formed with the expressed goal of increasing the
presence of women in the instrumentation workforce.
OPC Unified Architecture (UA) defines secure, reliable interoperability for exchanging data and information between the factory floor and the enterprise. The open, cross platform, service-oriented architecture builds on and unifies existing, successfully-adopted OPC Foundation interfaces. See also: OPC Foundation
OPC Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) for Process Control
OPC Openness, Productivity, Connectivity
OPC UA Openness, Productivity & Collaboration, Unified Architecture
OQ Operational Qualification
ORP Oxidation Reduction Potential
ORSociety Operational Research Society
OPW The OMAC Packaging Workgroup
OPW Office of Public Works (Ireland)
OS Operating System
OSA Optical Society of America
OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Administration (US)
OSI Open systems interconnect
OSICOM ISA's Open Systems Interconnections Division (now OSID)
OSID ISA's Open Systems Interconnection Division
OTC Over the counter (drugs)
OU Open University
P
P&A InstMC's Prizes and Awards Committee
P&ID Piping and instrumentation diagram
pa Pascal
PAC Programmable automation controller
PAM Plant asset management
PAS Publicly available specification (IEC)
PAT Process Analytical Technology
PC Personal Computer
PC Programmable Controller (especially before IBM used the term PC for their computer)
PCFC Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council
PCI Perpheral component interconnect
PCL Polytechnics of Central London
PCM Process-control module
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PCS Process Control System
PD Proportional-Derivative
PDH Plesiochronous digital hierarchy (i.e. Practically synchronous digital hierarchy)
PDM Product data management
PE Professional Engineer
PED Pressure equipment directive
PEMS Predictive emissions-monitoring system
PER Packed Encoding Rules
PERA Production Engineering Research Association
PES Programmable Electronic Systems
PET Process engineering tools
PFD Probability of Failure on Demand
PFD Process flow diagram
PGS Practical Guide Series (ISA Book Sieries)
pH Hydrogen Ion Concentration (measure of acidity)
QTC's are electro-active polymeric materials which enable the action of 'touch' to be translated into an electrical reaction, enabling a vast array of devices to incorporate very thin and highly robust 'sensing' of touch and pressure.
SCOTVEC Scottish Technician and Vocational Educational Council
SCPI Standing Committee on Professional Institutions (of EC)
SCPI Standard Commands for Programmable Controllers
SCPM Supply chain process management
SCSST Standing Conference on Schools' Science and Technology
SCTP InstMC's Systems and Control Technology Panel
SDH Synchronous digital hierarchy
SDL Security Development Lifecycle - process where companies design security into their products from the very start, not bolt it on when trouble strikes. (E Byres Tofino)
SDS Smart Distributed Systems
SDR Software-defined radio (as in FLAI-SDR)
SEFE Societe Europenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs
SOPRO is a project which aims at
revolutionizing the manufacturing industry. Research is carried out by a
consortium of several Fraunhofer-Institutes and the Technical University of
Berlin led by the Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Systems and Design
Technology (IPK). The German Engineering Federation's (VDMA) associations
Micro Technology and Productronics as well as the working group Modular
Microsystems coordinate the co-operation with the industry. SOPRO is a
government funded project within the framework program "Microsystems
Technology" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The
project management organization is the VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH,
Berlin. The project develops the potential of self-organizing structures in
industrial production employing process e-grains. Products and resources
are equipped with intelligent process e-grains, which deal autonomously
with other partners of the production network. Independent from a control
unit they implement production processes according to the principle of
self-organization.
SOPRA Self-organizing production
SP ISA's designation for Standards and Practices sup committies (EG SP75.01 Terminology)
sp gr sp.gr Specific gravity
SPC Statistical Process Control
SPDT Single-pole double-throw
SPI Serial peripheral interconnect
SPIE Society of Photo-Optical Instrumental Engineers (now the International Society for Optical Engineering)
SPP InstMC's Standards Policy Panel
SPP Special Promoted Programme (as od SERC)
SPR Stretegic petroleum reserve
SPR Surface plasmon resonance
SPRINT Strategic Programnme for Innovation and Technology Transfer
The OPC UA standard upgrades OPC communications from Microsoft COM/DCOM technology and features enhanced reliability, security and robustness while maintaining a common data model. It will offer best-of-breed integration and also provide the framework for platform neutrality, enabling real-time and historical information interoperability between systems. Moreover, the OPC UA will offer integration with Microsoft Web Services and plant management technologies.
UA Unified Architecture (right)
UART Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter
UBA Umweltbundesamt (German Federal Environment Agency)
UCC University College Cork
UCCA Universities' Cenbtral Council on Admission
UCD University College Dublin
UCG University College Galway
UDC Urban District Council
UFC Universities Funding Council
UHF Ultra high frequency
UI User interface
UK OSCA United Kingdom Optical Sensors Collaborative Association
UKAC United Kingdom Automatic Control Council
UKAPE United Kingdom Association of Professional Engineers
UMIST University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
UML Unified modelling language
UMS Utilities Management Services
UNCTAD UN Conference on Trade and Development
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UPS Uninterruptable power supply
URL Universal Resource Locator
Embedded USB - a brief tutorial - If you need your embedded application to talk to a PC then increasingly the way to go is USB. Unlike the good old parallel or serial cables these interfaces are far from simple to implement, debug or program.(Computer Solutions)
USB Universal serial bus
UTM Unsafe to Monitor
UUC Ulster University College
UWB Ultra Wide Band
UWIST University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
The ABCs of XML, Parts 1, 2 & 3 This three-part series for CONTROL introduces readers to the basic rules of XML, its terminology and related standards, and discusses what you'll need to know to survive in the world of connected data.
XML Extensible markup language
XRD X-ray diffraction
XRF X-Ray fluorescence
Y
YAG yttrium-aluminium-garnet
YEB Young Engineers for Britain (a competition run by the EC)
