Two important Memorandums of Understanding were signed in recent months. First, OPC UA is finding itself used in applications beyond traditional manufacturing. In this case, commercial professional kitchens. Second, an MOU was signed with the VDMA Robotics organization. Here, OPC UA was chosen as the easiest route to M2M integration.
The OPC Foundation membership really is a diverse set of companies developing products and/or services for many different domains and vertical markets. Corporate members that are Class A members are recognized here that have joined since November 1, 2016.
Also, the OPC Foundation is proud to announce the availability of our new European Certification Test Lab.
Finally, the next OPC interoperability workshop is scheduled for the week of April 24th, 2017 in Phoenix, AZ.
At OPC Day Europe, there were many interesting talks about OPC UA and its applicability into a variety of environments. If you weren’t able to make it to the event, relevant videos are released here for catching up. Make sure to find the OPC Foundation at an event near you and check out the OPC YouTube Channel for more.
The OPC Foundation is making its certification program, previously only available to OPC Foundation members, completely open and available to non-members. They will be able to use the OPC Foundation certification tools and certify their OPC enabled products as such. Also, the OPC Foundation is opening new certification labs with Ingenieurbuero Allmendinger in Salach, Germany and at the Beijing Institute of Technology in China.
The MDIS Companion standard will be released in December and has completed a full function Interoperability test (IOP) which included a demonstration to Operating companies of the MDIS standard. Its goal is to standardize the interface between subsea systems and the platform DCS system. This includes both the communication (OPC UA) and the information model that is transferred.
These are incredibly exciting times in Industrie 4.0 and this new open-source cross-platform reference stack will enable the next generation of connected OPC UA products. It enables the creation of single-source OPC UA applications that will run unmodified on Linux, iOS, iPhone, most Windows platforms, and Android. Sample applications for clients and servers are also provided, making it easy to get started.
Archived videos from OPC Day Europe 2016 are now available on the OPC Foundation website. Get answers to your most pressing questions: What’s the latest status of standardization for Industrie 4.0? What were the results from the latest security analysis of OPC UA? And more…
OPC Foundation members are invited to submit OPC-related news, application stories, and product news for publication in OPC Connect. Stories related to OPC UA are especially desired. Take advantage of this member-only benefit and increase market awareness about your products and services!
The OPC Foundation has elected Microsoft to the Board of Directors of the OPC Foundation, which represents many of the world’s most prominent global suppliers. The new board seat, which will be held by Microsoft Director of IoT Business Development Matt Vasey, is an extension of Microsoft’s support for OPC Foundation since the company first became a member in 1995.
There were two main takeaways from this year’s Hannover Fair: one, the omnipresence of OPC UA on many of the booths; and two, the collaborations signed with many different organizations. It seemed like everywhere you looked at the Hannover Fair, there was and OPC logo. 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.