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 formed the original basis for this list.
AICRO Association of Independent Contract Research Organisations
AIM Alternative Investment Market
AIoT Artificial Intelligence of Things
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)
AMT Advanced Manufacturing Technology (also AMT Association organised by Forbairt)
AnCO An Comhairle Oiliúna (subsumed in FÁS)
ANN Artificial Neural Networks
ANSI American National Standards Institution
AOI Automated optical inspection.
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.
APL Advanced Physical Layer (see Wikipedia Ethernet-APL )
ARM Advanced RISC Machine (was Acorn RISC Machine).
ARP Address resolution protocol
ASD Aspirating Smoke Detection
ASE Association for Science Education
ASHRAE The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
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 Automatic Test Markup Language.
ATX Advanced Technology Extended.
AUT Association of University Teachers
AV autonomous vehicle
AVS American Vacuum Society
AWR Applied wave research
B
B2B Business to businesse
BAAS British Association for the Advancement of Science
CAN-FD Controller Area Network Flexible Data-Rate.
CAMS Consolidated alarm management software
CAO Central Applications Office
CAP Certified Automation Professional
CAT Computerised Axial Tomography
CB Scheme The IECEE CB Scheme is an international system for mutual acceptance of test reports and certificates dealing with the safety of electrical and electronic components, equipment and products.
CBE Computer based engineering
CBM Condition-based maintenance
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)
CCS Carbon capture and storage.
CCST Certified Control Systems Technician (ISA)
CCT Co-ordinating Committee: TEng, Eng Tech
CCUS Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (See more info on IEA site. )
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.
COP The Coefficient Of Performance expresses the energy efficiency of a machine and corresponds to the ratio of heating or cooling provided to electrical energy consumed. The higher the COP, the lower the electricity bill.
CWDM Coarse Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (What is CWDM?: Margaret Rouse.)
CXPI (Clock eXtension Peripheral Interface) is designed to succeed the widely-used Local Interconnect Network (LIN) automotive communication protocol. CXPI reduces the bill-of-material costs and lower fuel consumption by requiring fewer wire harnesses in a vehicle. Standard J3076_201510.
Fiber Optic solutions with Expanded Beam technology (EBP) are particularly durable connections that maintain their high performance for up to 100,000 mating cycles. By means of beam expansion via a special lens, the light from one contact is transmitted to the lens of the contact in the counterpart without any errors.
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
EOT Eco Obsolete Technology
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
ERA Electrical Research Association (formerly ERA Technology Ltd.)
ERB Engineers' Registration Board (Formally part of CEI)
ERC The European Research Council - a pan European funding body designed to support investigator-driven frontier research and stimulate scientific excellence across Europe.
ESG Environmental, Social and Governance (Sustainability)
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.
ESNet: An Environmental Sensor Network comprises an array of sensor nodes and a communications system which allows their data to reach a server. The sensor nodes gather data autonomously and a data network is usually used to pass data to one or more base stations, which forward it to a Sensor Network Server (SNS).
FCC Federal communications commission (See also ECC)
FCS Functional Companion Standard
FCU Field Control Unit
FD Failed dangerous
FD Functional Diagram (implementation dependant)
FDA Food and Drug Administration (USA)
FDD Frequency division duplexing
FDDI Fibre distributed data interface
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 Field Device Integration
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FDT Field device tool (right)
FE Field emission
FEA Finite Element Analysis
FEANI Federation Europenne Associations National des Ingenieurs.
FEC forward error correction
FEED Front end engineering design
FEMA Failure modes and effects analysis
FFC Flexible Flat Cable
FGS Fire & Gas Systems
FEEL Front-End Engineering and Design.
FEGT Furnace exit-gas temperature.
FIRST For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
GERG European Gas Research Group works with the European energy community to develop innovative solutions which place our gas infrastructure at the heart of the energy system, now and in the future.
GFC Global Certification Forum a non-profit, global membership driven organisation offering mobile and IoT certification programmes based on conformity to agreed standards.
GHC Green Hydrogen Coalition - Facilitate policies and practices to advance the production and use of green hydrogen in all sectors where it will accelerate the transition to a carbon free energy system.
GHz GigaHertz
GL Germanischer Lloyd (see DNV GL below)
GLP Good Laboratory Practice
GMBR Generic master batch records
GMC General motion control
GMP Good Manufacturing Practice
GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System - the standard generic term for satellite navigation systems that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage includes the American GPS, European Galileo, Russian GLONASS, Chinese BeiDou, Japan's QZSS and India's NavIC. These satellite constellations broadcast positioning information to receivers which use it to calculate their absolute position.
GPGPU General-purpose computing on graphics processing units
GPL General public license
gpm Gallons per minute
GPR Ground penetrating radar
GPRS General packet radio service
GPS: The official designation of GPS is "Navigational Satellite Timing and Ranging Ð Global Positioning System" (NAVSTAR GPS) and it is now pervasive in mobile devices like smartphones and navigation devices. Each satellite is equipped with one or more atomic clocks. The major advantage of GPS signals is that GPS receivers only receive data from satellites but do not transmit. Because the position detection is normally done by computing the signal propagation times between the satellites and the GPS receiver, no information can flow to unauthorized third parties.
HETAS a not for profit organisation offering competent person scheme for installers of biomass and solid fuel heating, registration for retailers and chimney sweeps and approval of appliances and fuels.
INCOS International Council On Systems Engineering.
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.
IRT Isochronous Real-Time (a computer protocol used for PROFINET IO)
The International Society of Automation (ISA) is a nonprofit professional association that sets the standard for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety, and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure. Founded in 1945, ISA develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 36,000 members and 350,000 customers around the world.
ISA International Society of Automation (see box right)
IS Intrinsically safe
ISA Instruction set architecture
ISA Instruments, Systems and Automation
ISA Integraded systems architecture
ISA Irish Safety Association
ISA Irish Software Association
ISA The Instruments, Systems, and Automation Society (initials originally stood for Instrument Society of America and now the International Society of Automation).
ISACA Information Systems Audit and Control Association.
LSA Large Scheimpflug Angle (The Scheimpflug principle is a description of the geometric relationship between the orientation of the plane of focus, the lens plane, and the image plane of an optical system (such as a camera) when the lens plane is not parallel to the image plane. - Wikipedia)
MTAC Mid-Atlatic Technology Applications Centre (part of NASA)
MTBF Mean time between failures
MTBR Mean time between repair
MTC Microelectronics Training Center
MTD Module Type Package (see Namur: Automation Modular Plants: In our production plants modular automation of process modules (e.g. Package Units) can be realized through the usage of so called Module Type Packages (MTP) in order to increase the flexibility of the production.)
MW-NIR Multiwavelength near wavelength near infrared
MQTT Message Queue Telemetry Transport.
N
NAB National Advisory Board
NACE National Association of Corrosion Engineers
NAES Naval Air Engineering Station
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NAMAS National Measurement Accreditation Service
NAMUR Normenarbeitsgemeinschaft für Messund Regeltechnik in der Chemischen Industrie. (European Chemical C&A Standard)
NAT Network address translation
NATFHE National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education
NATLAS National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme
NAVSTAR GPS Navigational Satellite Timing and Ranging Ð Global Positioning System (See also GPS)
NBO Networked business object
NBS National Bureau of Standards
NCAP Network capable application processor
NCC National Computing Centre
NCCIC National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (Part of US Dept of Homeland Security)
NCEA National Council for Educational Awards
NCFE Northern Council for Further Education (dropped the full name in the 1990s, as no longer accurately reflecting its growing national (British) focus).
NCFT Nonrelativistic Conformal Field Theory (physics)
NCFT Non-Commutative Field Theory
NCMS National Centre for Manufacturing Sciences (US)
NCSL National Conference of Standards Laboratories
NCVQ National Council for Vocational Qualifications
NDT Non destructive testing
NDIR Nondispersive infrared
NIRSpec Near Infrared Spectrograph
NEB National Enterprise Board (now subsumed in BTG)
NEB Nuclear Energy Board
NEC National Electrical Code
NEC National Exhibition Centre (Britain)
NED Near Eye Display.
NEL National Engineering Laboratory
NEMA National Electrical Manufacturers Association
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.
NIW Nexus of Instrumentation Women
NLA-SA National Laboratory Association - South Africa)
NPRA National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
NRDC National Research Developement Corporation (now subsumed in BTG)
N-RTC Nitrification Real Time Controller
NSAI National Standards Authority of Ireland
NSF National Science Foundation
NSPS National Standards of Performance for Stationary Sources
NSWC Naval surface warfare center Naval surface warfare center
NTDB National Trade Database
NTN non-terrestrial network
NTU nephelometric turbidity unit
The "embedded NUC™" Standard ("embedded Next Unit of Computing") is a versatile small form factor
targeting the fast growing markets for multifunctional, small sized and cost effective standardized
embedded computer boards. (SGET)
embedded NUC™ embedded embedded Next Unit of Computing.
NUI National University of Ireland
NUI Normally unattended installation
NUMA Non-Uniforn-Memory-Access
NVH Noise, vibration, harshness (tester)
NVLAP National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (USA)
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
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
OSMOTREFF Online System for Monitoring Odours Treatment Efficiency.
OSRF Open Source Robotics Foundation (now Open Robotics.)
OTA Over the air.
OTC Over the counter (drugs)
OTSec SIG Cyber Ireland's Operational Technology Cybersecurity (OTSec) Special Interest Group (SIG).
OTCSA The Operational Technology Cyber Security Alliance.
OU Open University
P
P&A InstMC's Prizes and Awards Committee
P&ID Piping and instrumentation diagram
pa Pascal
PAC Programmable automation controller
PACE Password-authenticated connection establishment A password-based authentication and encryption method developed by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for use with the new German ID card.
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.
RISC-V Reduced Instruction Set Computing Five(An instruction set architecture (ISA))
RKE Remote keyless entry
RLL Relay Ladder Logic
RMC ISA's series Resources in Measurement & Control
RMC Resources for Measurement & Control (ISA Book Series)
RMP Risk management plan
ROADM Reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer
RoHS Restriction of hazardous substances
ROI Return on investment
ROM Rigorous online modeling
ROMEO Rigorous online modeling and equation-based optimisation
RONA Return on net assets
ROV Remotely operated vehicle
RPA Robotic Process Automation
RPE Rittal Power Engineering
RPG Report Program Generator
RPM Rules-driven Project Management
RPO Real-time process optimisation & training
RPP Recovery pilot plant
RS Royal Society
RSA Royal Society of Arts
RSC Royal Society of Chemistry
RSS Really simple syndication (originally rich site summary)
RTAP Real-time application platform
RTC Real time control
RTC Regional Technical College
RTC Robot technology component
RTD Resistance Thermometer Device or detector
RTLS Real-time location system
Real-time locating systems, also known as real-time tracking systems, are used to automatically identify and track the location of objects or people in real time, usually within a building or other contained area.
SAE J1939 Society of Automotive Engineers standard SAE J1939 is the vehicle bus recommended practice used for communication and diagnostics among vehicle components.
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
SDG Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations target!)
SDH Synchronous digital hierarchy
SDK Software Development Kit
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)
SDN Software-Defined Networking
SDS Smart Distributed Systems
SDR Software-defined radio (as in FLAI-SDR)
SEFE Societe Europenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs
SFP Small Form-factor Pluggable - The SFP ports on a switch and SFP modules enable the switch to connect to fiber and Ethernet cables of different types and speeds.
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
SPDEI Le Syndicat Professionnel de la Distribution en Žlectronique Industrielle.
SPDT Single-pole double-throw
SPDEI Syndicat Professionel de la distribution en Electronique Industrielle (French association of electronic component distributors).
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.
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
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (Paris Agreement etc)
UPS Uninterruptable power supply
URL Universal Resource Locator
VRU Vulnerable road users.
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)
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)
International Society of Automation (ISA)
