In this paper, we present a complete IoT (Internet of Things) system, starting from a network of smart sensors and actuators. To ensure interoperability and a high level of standardization, a customized but compatible OPC UA industrial middleware implementation, named OPC UA / ROSA, allows secured communications. It also acts as a distributed contextual services discovery mechanism.
During Hannover Fair, the BSI (German Federal Office for Security in information Technology) published their results of an OPC UA security analysis with respect to its relevance in the German Industrie 4.0 initiative. The results are publicized on the BSI and on the OPC Foundation websites. A statement from the BSI reads: “An extensive analysis of the security functions in the specification of OPC UA confirmed that OPC UA was designed with a focus on security and does not contain systematic security vulnerabilities.”
While OPC UA today is mostly recognized for its communication virtues (regarding scalability, security, performance, platform-independence), one of its most exciting features remains in the shadows. Information modeling, or the ability to express not only data but also the meaning of data, is a key concept in the quest to make systems more intelligent, more autonomous and more evolvable. While the full potential of information modeling in industrial applications remains to be demonstrated by academic research, many of its core ideas can be applied right now.
The OPC Foundation opens the doors to facilitate increased adoption of OPC Unified Architecture technology beyond industrial automation! The OPC Foundation is implementing an “open shared source” strategy…
by Philippe Maurin, Gustavo Ferraz, Eduardo Freitas, RD&I, ORTENG Equipamentos e Sistemas.
ORTENG is supplying the electrical and automation systems of 29 substations with 1,431 IEDs for oil refinery Abreu e Lima of Petrobras, which is being built at Ipojuca, Brazil. Each substation has at least one SISORT DA system working in a redundant configuration with a total of 44 systems and a total of 80,000 OPC items. Each system has an OPC Server (SISORT-OPC Server) connected to at least two (and up to six) OPC Clients, including DCS OPC Clients and Event Recorder OPC Clients.
by Georg Suess, Operational Marketing, and Vaclav Bouse, Product Manager, Softing Industrial Automation GmbH
With the industry-wide trend towards horizontal and vertical integration, intelligence is moving from supervisory control systems to local components. This development is leading to a growing need for communication for which the open OPC UA standard provides an ideal solution because it can also be used for embedded devices.
by Frans van Dorsselaer, Fox-IT
OPC UA is gaining ground. The attendance at the Interoperability Workshop in Nürnberg last month was higher than ever. The product variety is also increasing; we recognized controlling devices, gateways to legacy and proprietary protocols, operational HMIs, historians, and back office…
by Robert Trask, P.E
As U.S. manufacturing and production moves toward what is generally considered the fourth Industrial Revolution, popularized as “Industry 4.0,” many of the necessary technological components are already in place. However, there is some additional ground that must be covered. A consensus is forming around the notion that the primary component preventing the revolution from reaching full speed is wider acceptance of communication standards. So how can we consistently, and with less effort, exchange data between the various components of a highly connected industrial machine or process?
by Nathan Pocock, Director of Technology and Compliance, OPC Foundation
It seems as though everyone has now heard of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 and the opportunities ahead. But are you prepared to benefit from this next technological leap while maximizing your opportunity with minimal risk and cost? One key to success is adopting open standards such as OPC UA, a platform-independent technology that assures interoperability…
by Dan Hebert, Control magazine
OPC is playing a significant role in allowing plants to bridge the gap between process control and building automation systems, according to an article in the November issue of Control magazine by senior technical editor Dan Hebert. There are multiple reasons to bring them together, and others to keep them apart.