Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, work at the OPC Foundation continues unabated and with unwavering vigor. There are many big news items to be found in this issue of OPC Connect: from Google Cloud joining the Foundation, to OPC UA Motion, to the Foundation working with Ethernet-APL, to extensions of the OPC UA Compliance Test Tool. Please, read more, and enjoy!
The OPC Foundation is proud to welcome Google Cloud as the latest addition to its 773 member community. The membership underscores Google Cloud’s commitment to openness and industry collaboration by using OPC UA to incorporate machine data into their data analytics and AI capabilities
The OPC Foundation will support the development and promotion of an Advanced Physical Layer (APL) for industrial Ethernet, suitable for use in demanding applications and hazardous locations in the process industry.
The OPC Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Clark as the Director of OPC Foundation North America. With over 30 years of experience, Michael Clark is internationally recognized in the process automation sector for his expertise in Industrial Control System (ICS) fieldbus protocols.
Three new updates are available on the collaborations front. First, the VDMA and VDW have joined forces to promote the use and dissemination of OPC UA standards under the umati label. Second, the EUROMAP Companion Spec for plastics and rubber machines based on OPC UA is released. Third, an OPC UA Companion Spec for PROFINET is released.
The new OPC UA Compliance Test Tool (UACTT) has been extended to include more than 1800 test scripts for OPC UA core functionality and for Companion Specifications –including validation for Process Automation Device Information Model (PA-DIM), PLCopen, and MDIS. Certification testing can now also be performed remotely via a virtual connection.
The OPC Foundation, ODVA, and Sercos International are pleased to announce a collaboration to develop a new generation of a best-in-class motion technology for industry: OPC UA Motion. A new Working Group is tasked with specifying the motion facet of Field Level Communications (FLC) to enable inter-vendor operation for motion automation.
Open standards are fundamental to how we break down barriers to innovation, flexibility, and efficiency. By standardizing interfaces and information, we can promote interoperability in factories throughout supply chains and across entire enterprises.
The TwinCAT OPC UA Server software from Beckhoff has been extended with the standardized GDS interfaces to support the Push Certificate Management model of the Global Discovery Server (GDS).
METTLER TOLEDO built the specifications for their simple static weighing and dynamic checkweighing scales ahead of time –to be ready when the Companion Specification is released in the near future.