There were two main takeaways from this year’s Hannover Fair:
- The omnipresence of OPC UA on many of the booths
- The collaborations signed with many different organizations
A prime example of OPC UA being all over the fair was at the SAP booth. Their demo, “Reshape the Automation Pyramid”, is shown below. This was reported on extensively in the last issue of OPC Connect, and became the cover story on the Hannover Messe magazine. It was always crowded:
OPC Foundation Board member Veronika Schmid-Lutz, SAP, giving an interview at the demo on Hannover Fair 2016
The same could be found on the Microsoft pod at the OPC booth, again always crowded:
On the collaboration front, the OPC Foundation has been busy solidifying OPC UA as the networking standard for Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things. In order to make these dreams become a reality, cooperation among disparate organizations is critical. This is exemplified by the many collaborations signed at the Hannover Fair. These include W3C, CLPA, CiA, OpenFog, Industrial Data Space, and IO-Link. Of note are the collaborations with organizations outside of the traditional industrial automation realm.
W3C and OPCF to Integrate OPC-UA into the Web of Things
At the Hannover Fair, Thomas J. Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation and Dave Raggett, W3C lead for the Web of Things signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organizations agree to closely cooperate to ensure interoperability for the Internet of Things (IoT).
This unique collaboration between the OPC Foundation and W3C provides a complete solution as the essence of IoT connectivity horizontally and vertically across a multitude of domains. The collaboration provides the infrastructure for the Industrie 4.0 reference architecture facilitating the vision and execution of a “Smart Factory”.
OPC Foundation and CLPA Agree to Coordinate Communications in Machine to IT systems
At the Hannover Fair, Thomas J. Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation and Naomi Nakamura, Global Director of the CC-Link Partner Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organizations agree to closely cooperate while developing these interfaces. Mr. Burke, President and Executive Director OPC Foundation, said, “This collaboration between the OPC Foundation and the CLPA provides a complete solution for CC-Link networks and devices to the cloud. End-users who have selected the reliable CC-Link networks will also be able to integrate with other disparate systems to achieve complete data and information exchange”.
OPC Foundation and CAN in Automation e.V. Agree to Work in Partnership
At the Hannover Fair, Thomas J. Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation and Holger Zeltwanger, CiA Managing Director, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organizations agree to closely cooperate in the development and marketing of shared deliverables to foster interoperability.
“The OPC Foundation collaboration with CAN in Automation provides the infrastructure necessary to achieve information modeling of data from CAN technology enabled devices and networks and be able to leverage the power of OPC UA providing generic information integration and seamless communication between devices and applications from the embedded world to the cloud”, says Thomas Burke. “CAN networks are used in many different application fields, inclusive of vehicles, industrial automation, building automation, healthcare and oil / gas. This closely aligns with the vision of OPC Foundation in the pursuit of domain independence and seamless interoperability across domains”.
OPC Foundation and OpenFog Agree to Collaborate on Technical Specifications
At the Hannover Fair, Thomas J. Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation and Matt Vasey, Vice President of Business Development and Treasurer/Secretary of OpenFog Consortium signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organizations agree to closely cooperate in the development and marketing of shared deliverables to foster interoperability. Mr. Burke said, “OpenFog provides a unique opportunity for OPC Foundation members and the overall OPC community at large to develop products that leverage fog technology, and development of solutions for interoperable testbeds”.
OPC and Industrial Data Space Foundation Agree to Collaborate on Development
At the Hannover Fair, Thomas J. Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation and Reinhold Achatz, Chairman of the Board Industrial Data Space e.V. and CTO thyssenkrupp AG signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organizations agree to closely cooperate in the development and marketing of shared deliverables to foster interoperability.
Mr. Burke said, “The OPC Foundation collaboration with the Industrial Data Space Initiative provides a unique opportunity for OPC Foundation members and the OPC community to leverage the standardized information platform to enable autonomous secure authentication and communication with IT-based systems of today and tomorrow”.