You have heard a lot about UAVs since they've been widely used in the war in Afghanistan...unmanned aerial vehicles...but have you heard about UNVs?

The 2010 Honeywell Users Group in Phoenix is just about cranking up as we speak, but the PR folks have been up very early. This is the first bit of news that popped up in my mailbox this morning. May not be the biggest piece of news (even though it's about a big pipeline), but it is the first. Here ya go:

John Eidar Simensen of Institute for Energy Technology offered a methodology using Baysian Belief Networks for estimating the complexity of critical instrumentation and control systems. This is an ongoing project which may provide the first real metrics for complexity after years of trying.

According to a press release from ABB's Laura Patrick this morning, the less-than-five-year-old ABB DCS has passed the 5K mark, with the majority of systems being new or competitive system replacements.

ABB’s flagship System 800xA sales exceed 5,000
Extended automation system has delivered significant productivity, energy
efficiency improvements across all industries

ISA99.02.01 was approved by ANSI as an American National
Standard on 13 January 2009. It has now been submitted to IEC65 WG10 for the IEC
process. Individuals who are members of ISA may download the standard at no
charge for your individual use.

 If you aren't a member of ISA, this is an excellent reason to join. You'll save the entire amount of your membership in that one transaction.