Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture Research Articles

Enhancing Manufacturing Excellence with Digital-Twin-Enabled Operational Monitoring and Intelligent Scheduling

This research examines the potential of digital twin (DT) technology for reformation within China’s traditional solid-wood-panel processing industry, which currently suffers from production inefficiencies and the slow adoption of digital technology. The research centers around developing a digital twin system, elucidating improvements in manufacturing efficiency, waste management, process simulation, and real-time monitoring. These capabilities facilitate immediate problem solving and offer transparency in the process. The digital twin system is comprised of physical, transport, virtual, and application layers, employing a MySQL database and using the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol for communication. The application of this system has led to heightened production efficiency and better material use in the solid-wood-panel manufacturing line. Integrating the dynamic selection adaptive genetic algorithm (DSAGA) into the virtual layer drives the system’s efficiency forward. This evolved approach has allowed for an enhancement of 8.93% in the scheduling efficiency of DSAGA compared to traditional genetic algorithms (GAs), thereby contributing to increased system productivity. Real-time mapping and an advanced simulation interface have strengthened the system’s monitoring aspect. These additions enrich data visualization, leading to better comprehension and a holistic process view. This research has ignited improvements in solid-wood-panel production, illustrating the tangible benefits and representing progress in incorporating digital technology into traditional industries. This research sets a path for transforming these industries into smart manufacturing by effectively bridging the gap between physical production and digital monitoring. Furthermore, the adjustability of this approach extends beyond solid-wood-panel production, indicating the capability to expedite movement towards intelligent production in various other manufacturing sectors.

An Immersive Digital Twin Applied to a Manufacturing Execution System for the Monitoring and Control of Industry 4.0 Processes

The present research proposes the implementation of an architecture for industrial process monitoring and control for a manufacturing execution system (MES) using an immersive digital twin (DT). For the design of the proposal, cyber–physical systems (CPS), MES, robotics, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, virtual reality, and open platform communication-unified architecture (OPC UA) communication protocols were used to integrate these technologies and enhance the functionalities of the DT by providing greater performance. The proposed work is implemented in an Industry 4.0 laboratory that is composed of Festo Cyber–Physical Factory and CP-Lab stations. The implementation of the architecture is based on ISO 23247, where the following requirements were considered for the design of DTs: (1) observable attributes and 3D design and visualization of all physical production lines in all of their stages, (2) a communication entity through the OPC UA protocol for the collection of state changes of manufacturing elements, (3) a DT entity where digital models are modeled and updated based on the collected data, and (4) user entities through the use of AR and VR to make manufacturing more efficient. The experimental results showed that the architecture enables interoperability between different platforms and control subsystems. It allows for the detection and diagnosis of problems during the execution of the production line; in addition, the high-fidelity simulation and AR and VR environments provided by the DT with data obtained in real time can improve the accuracy and efficiency of manufacturing through a more detailed analysis of the process, providing advantages such as interactive creation for customized products and continuous innovation.

Shear thickening and charge-storing interlayer-based all-aerosol-sprayed wearable triboelectric sensor for industrial wireless human-machine interfaces

In harsh factory environment, achieving design and deployment of wearable sensor is challenging for foundation of industrial internet of things (IoT) systems. Herein, we introduce an all-aerosol-sprayed impact-resistant wearable triboelectric sensor (SC-WTS) that integrates SiO2 nanoparticle-based shear thickening and a charge-storing (SC) interlayer. This interlayer synergistically enhances both anti-impact and self-powered sensing performances, enabling precise detection with a wide pressure range of 0.25–10 kPa, outstanding linearity of 0.96, and high sensitivity of 21.1 V/kPa. Fabricated using an all-aerosol-spray process, the SC-WTS is highly adaptable to diverse wearable substrates, including Kevlar, leather, and plastic plates, and exhibits excellent impact resistance against low-velocity impacts. By conjugating the in-situ fabrication, outstanding self-powered sensing performance, and superior anti-impact performance, a real-time safety monitoring IIoT system was developed utilizing an industrial wireless server network and open platform communications unified architecture. The system enables supervisors to detect industrial collisions and emergency messages in real time through the triboelectric signals generated by the SC-WTS module, which is embedded in safety clothes of onsite workers. This work provides the practical concept of a WTS based on an SC interlayer with excellent anti-impact and self-powered sensing performance for wireless human-machine interfaces under extreme conditions at industrial sites.

Industrial Internet of Things: A Review of Improvements Over Traditional SCADA Systems for Industrial Automation

This review article provides an overview of the potential of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to revolutionize industrial automation. The IIoT is the Internet of Things (IoT) but in an industrial context, i.e., IIoT is used more to connect machines and devices in industrial environments. The IIoT has the potential to benefit from advances in artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning and deep learning, to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce overhead costs. We provide an overview of the supervisory control and data acquisition system, a definition of IIoT, and how IIoT can offer industry greater potential for system integration to improve automation and optimization. In addition, five of the major IIoT protocols are discussed, namely, message queue telemetry transport, advanced messaging queuing protocol, constrained application protocol, data distribution service, and open platform communication unified architecture. We then identified key IIoT improvements for industrial automation. These are; efficient and low-cost systems, digital twin, machine failure prediction, real-time remote monitoring, and security. We then discussed the key research in the literature for each category. We presented some public IIoT datasets so that researchers can use them to develop new learning models to improve the security of IIoT systems. Finally, we discussed some of the limitations, recommendations, and future perspectives for developing IIoT-enabled systems.

Integrating and interconnecting of older SINUMERIK CNC machines with industry 4.0 using a plug-and-play system

Interconnectivity and the standardization of communications promotes the growth of Industry 4.0. The most modern industrial machinery, devices and processes are equipped with communication systems that favor such connectivity throughout industrial standards such as OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture). On the other hand, older computer numerical control systems (CNCs), although generating large amounts of data, lack standardized communication interfaces. Based on the above, the purpose of this research has been to provide connectivity to a subset of Siemens numerical controls, specifically the SINUMERIK 840D models in their older versions. Although previous research has explored this issue, limitations were encountered due to hardware and/or software requirements that present incompatibilities with the older versions. To address this issue, in this article, we present a Unified Communications System (UNIFIK) based on OPC UA for older SIEMENS CNCs, namely the Siemens 840D powerline (pl) and solution line (sl), through their PC Unit systems (PCU) SINUMERIK MMC, SINUMERIK HMI Advanced and SINUMERIK Operate 4.5. UNIFIK has been developed, tested, and validated in an Industry 4.0 laboratory as well as on real end-customer production lines. For the validation phase, 21 SINUMERIK devices were connected, and 7 OPC-UA clients simultaneously read 250 variables for 4 months. RAM usage was observed to range from 75 MB to 100 MB and CPU was observed to be within the normal range, fluctuating between 5 % and 30 %. These performance metrics were achieved alongside a data refresh time of less than one second (250 milliseconds for SINUMERIK Operate) and a transfer rate between the OPC-Server and the drivers of 1.65 kB/s, which represents a significant advancement in the connectivity of this type of machinery.

Development of Surface Roughness Prediction and Monitoring System in Milling Process

High surface quality is an important indicator for high-performance machining during the manufacturing process. The surface roughness generated in machining can be affected by cutting parameters and machining vibration. To achieve processing efficiency, monitoring surface quality within the desired range is important. This study aimed to develop a surface roughness prediction system for the milling process. The predictive model was established based on data collected from machining experiments with the response surface methodology. The surface roughness is related to independent variables, including cutting parameters and machining vibration, in terms of nonlinear functions by regression analysis and the neural network approach, respectively. To be implemented in a CNC milling machine for online application, a predictive model was introduced in the Virtual Machine Extension (VMX) intelligent software development platform. This model can acquire the cutting parameters from the controller via the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPCUA) interface as well as the vibration features from the sensory module. The system can calculate the roughness based on these data and issue alert when the predicted value exceeds the preset threshold or abnormal vibration is detected.

Embedded open platform communications unified architecture server-based online error motion measurement system

Embedded open platform communications unified architecture server-based online error motion measurement system

Development of a real-time framework between MATLAB and PLC through OPC-UA: A case study of a microgrid energy management system

Numerous research laboratories engaged in developing advanced algorithms for controlling Renewable Energy Systems (RES) face constraints due to the absence of specialized equipment for conducting research and experiments. Real-time simulation platforms are well-suited for creating fast or real-time computation models, offering prompt, accurate, and reliable insights for RES control implementation. Nevertheless, the high cost of real-time platforms renders them unaffordable for many laboratories. To address this issue, a cost-effective platform is designed to assist researchers in their activities. The hardware solution involves utilizing a Programmable Logic Control (PLC) to acquire data from diverse sensors and regulate the system through actuators and PI controllers. From a software perspective, a communication framework between MATLAB and the PLC is developed using OPC-UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) technology. In this paper, the operation and efficiency of the platform have been tested using the Software in the Loop (SIL) technique. The operating model is designed using MATLAB/Simulink to simulate and analyze the appropriate control technique suitable for PLC implementation, whereas the control is executed through Siemens S7–1200 PLC using TIA PORTAL. A visualization interface is established using WinCC-RT. Moreover, this paper presents the platform's design, discusses its application, and illustrates its usage through a case study. Indeed, a complex algorithm developed in MATLAB/Simulink can be automatically executed by any PLC using the designed framework.

Constrained Dynamic Matrix Control under International Electrotechnical Commission Standard 61499 and the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture.

This paper focuses on the implementation of a constrained Dynamic Matrix Control (DMC) approach within the level processes of the FESTO™ MPS-PA Compact Workstation plant in the context of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) paradigm. The goal is to develop an industrial control application with decentralized logic that optimizes the operation of the plant while adhering to specific constraints. The implementation is carried out using the IEC-61499 standard and the OPC-UA protocol, enabling seamless communication between devices and systems. The authors utilize the 4diac-IDE and 4diac-FORTE as the development and runtime environments, respectively, to enable the execution of the control application on low-cost devices. The Beagle Bone Black (BBB) card is used for data acquisition and actuator control. Three types of constraints are considered: control increment (Δu(k)), output (ym(k)), and control (u(k)) constraints, to prevent unnecessary stress on the actuator and avoid damage to the plant. The QP algorithm is employed to optimize the objective function and address these constraints effectively. By integrating advanced control strategies into industrial processes in the IIoT paradigm and implementing them on low-cost devices, this paper demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of improving system performance, resource utilization, and overall productivity while considering system limitations and constraints.

Architecture for manufacturing-X: Bringing asset administration shell, eclipse dataspace connector and OPC UA together

Manufacturing-X represents the idea of a decentralized data economy. The aim is to increase sustainability, competitiveness and resilience by digitizing supply chains. Technically, this requires three technologies. First, a standardized data model to ensure interoperability across company boundaries. Second, a solution to realize sovereign inter-organizational data exchange. And thirdly, a component for the company’s internal data communication. Asset Administration Shell (AAS), Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDSC) and Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) are suitable solutions. This paper introduces an appropriate architecture to combine these technologies in an industrial production environment and discusses existing challenges, limitations and future potentials.

Proposal of Mapping Digital Twins Definition Language to Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture.

The concept of Digital Twin is of fundamental importance to meet the main requirements of Industry 4.0. Among the standards currently available to realize Digital Twins there is the Digital Twins Definition Language. Digital Twin requires exchange of data with the real system it models and with other applications that use the digital replica of the system. In the context of Industry 4.0, a reference standard for an interoperable exchange of information between applications, is Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. The authors believe that interoperability between Digital Twins and Open Platform Communications Unified Architectures communication standard should be enabled. For this reason, the main goal of this paper is to allow a Digital Twin based on the Digital Twins Definition Language to exchange data with any applications compliant to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. A proposal about the mapping from Digital Twins Definition Language to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture will be presented. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposal, an implementation has been made by the authors, and its description will be introduced in the paper. Furthermore, the main results of the validation process accomplished on the basis of this implementation will be given.

Control upgrade for the TCV coils power supplies

The Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV) coil converters are fed, during the plasma pulse, by a flywheel generator (FG) providing the AC voltages few seconds before the plasma pulse. The synchronization with the 120 Hz frequency delivered by the FG, varying rapidly during the plasma pulse (up to 25 Hz/sec) is therefore one of the two main challenges of this work. The second one being the extraction of the synchronization signal in presence of the notches on the AC voltages due to thyristors commutations, in order to ensure a proper and accurate firing sequence. This has been solved making use of an innovative implementation of a PLL. Another important feature of this ongoing upgrade is the ability of the controller to be driven by digital voltage references directly transmitted via EtherCAT [1] through the future digital calculator which will ensure the plasma equilibria. Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) [2] will be used as an upgraded protocol allowing for the TCV Control to interact with the converters interface (HMI).

Performance Analysis of OPC UA for Industrial Interoperability towards Industry 4.0

Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) incorporates a wide range of features and covers most of the requirements for a platform-independent interoperability standard which can be used to transmit data and information from the factory production floor to the enterprise and management level. Due to its highly scalable and interoperable architecture, it is well-positioned for future deployment in smart embedded devices towards Industry 4.0, especially in environments where there are heterogeneous communication nodes. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the performance of OPC UA for communication in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments to better understand the technical implementation of OPC UA and the feasibility of incorporating OPC UA directly to resource-constrained edge devices. We propose an architectural system framework for OPC UA performance evaluation across a wide range of experiments. Our experimental results demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed system and evaluation framework. The OPC UA-based IIoT system architecture and budget-friendly/cost-effective testbed setup can be flexibly adopted for protocol testing, prototyping and educational purposes.

Semantic Interconnection Scheme for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks and Industrial Internet with OPC UA Pub/Sub.

In the Industry 4.0 era, with the continuous integration of industrial field systems and upper-layer facilities, interconnection between industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) and industrial Internet networks is becoming increasingly pivotal. However, when deployed in real industrial scenarios, IWSNs are often connected to legacy control systems, through some wired industrial network protocols via gateways. Complex protocol translation is required in these gateways, and semantic interoperability is lacking between IWSNs and the industrial Internet. To fill this gap, our study focuses on realizing the interconnection and interoperability between an IWSN and the industrial Internet. The Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) and joint publish/subscribe (pub/sub) communication between the two networks are used to achieve efficient transmission. Taking the Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation Process Automation (WIA-PA), a typical technology in IWSNs, as an example, we develop a communication architecture that adopts OPC UA as a communication bridge to integrate the WIA-PA network into the industrial Internet. A WIA-PA virtualization method for OPC UA pub/sub data sources is designed to solve the data mapping problem between WIA-PA and OPC UA. Then, the WIA-PA/OPC UA joint pub/sub transmission mechanism and the corresponding configuration mechanism are designed. Finally, a laboratory-level verification system is implemented to validate the proposed architecture, and the experimental results demonstrate its promising feasibility and capability.

A framework for researching energy optimization of factory operations

Energy optimization of factory operations has gained increasing importance over recent years since it is understood as one way to counteract climate change. At the same time, the number of research teams working on energy-optimized factory operations has also increased. While many tools are useful in this area, our team has recognized the importance of a comprehensive framework to combine functionality for optimization, simulation, and communication with devices in the factory. Therefore, we developed a framework that provides a standardized interface to research energy-optimized factory operations with a rolling horizon approach. The optimization part of the framework is based on the OpenAI gym environment. The framework also provides connectors for multiple communication protocols including Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture and Modbus via Transmission Control Protocol. These facilities can be utilized to implement rolling horizon optimizations for factory systems easily and directly control devices in the factory with the optimization results. In this article, we present the framework and show some examples to prove the effectiveness of our approach.

OPC-UA Agent for Legacy Programmable Logic Controllers

Open platform communications (OPC) unified architecture (UA) is a communication standard increasingly used in industrial automation systems to enable the exchanging of control and management data between distributed entities. This paper proposes the design of an OPC-UA agent to enable UA information service and client functionalities in legacy programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The agent runs on a separate machine connected to the PLC using a dedicated link and maintains shared memory for certain variables in the PLC. Based on the periodically synchronized variables, the agent services the OPC-UA information model and executes client function blocks on behalf of the PLC. One important design feature is the remote procedure call of IEC 61131-3-based function blocks using synchronized variables. This allows the standard OPC-UA client functions to be used in existing PLCs which only support numeric types and do not support strings or complex structures. To validate the proposed design, we implement an agent prototype and demonstrate the successful monitoring and control of an industrial robot controller via OPC-UA. Through experiments, we evaluate the performance of UA functions in terms of the latency of read services for an increasing number of items. The evaluation results are believed to provide useful insights into agent-based approaches for integrating legacy PLCs into the OPC-UA framework.

Vulnerabilities of the Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture Protocol in Industrial Internet of Things Operation

Recently, as new threats from attackers are discovered, the damage and scale of these threats are increasing. Vulnerabilities should be identified early, and countermeasures should be implemented to solve this problem. However, there are limitations to applying the vulnerability discovery framework used in practice. Existing frameworks have limitations in terms of the analysis target. If the analysis target is abstract, it cannot be easily applied to the framework. Therefore, this study proposes a framework for vulnerability discovery and countermeasures that can be applied to any analysis target. The proposed framework includes a structural analysis to discover vulnerabilities from a scenario composition, including analysis targets. In addition, a proof of concept is conducted to derive and verify threats that can actually occur through threat modeling. In this study, the open platform communication integrated architecture used in the industrial control system and industrial Internet of Things environment was selected as an analysis target. We find 30 major threats and four vulnerabilities based on the proposed framework. As a result, the validity of malicious client attacks using certificates and DoS attack scenarios using flooding were validated, and we create countermeasures for these vulnerabilities.

Towards post-quantum security for cyber-physical systems: Integrating PQC into industrial M2M communication1

The threat of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer contributes to an increasing interest in the field of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Compared to existing research efforts regarding the integration of PQC into the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, industrial communication protocols have so far been neglected. Since industrial cyber-physical systems (CPS) are typically deployed for decades, protection against such long-term threats is needed. In this work, we propose two novel solutions for the integration of post-quantum (PQ) primitives (digital signatures and key establishment) into the industrial protocol Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA): a hybrid solution combining conventional cryptography with PQC and a solution solely based on PQC. Both approaches provide mutual authentication between client and server and are realized with certificates fully compliant to the X.509 standard. We implement the two solutions and measure and evaluate their performance across three different security levels. All selected algorithms (Kyber, Dilithium, and Falcon) are candidates for standardization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We show that Falcon is a suitable option – especially – when using floating-point hardware provided by our ARM-based evaluation platform. Our proposed hybrid solution provides PQ security for early adopters but comes with additional performance and communication requirements. Our solution solely based on PQC shows superior performance across all evaluated security levels in terms of handshake duration compared to conventional OPC UA but comes at the cost of increased handshake sizes. In addition to our performance evaluation, we provide a proof of security in the symbolic model for our two PQC-based variants of OPC UA. For this proof, we use the cryptographic protocol verifier ProVerif and formally verify confidentiality and authentication properties of our quantum-resistant variants.

Comparison of REST and GraphQL Interfaces for OPC UA

Industry 4.0 and Cyber-physical systems require easy access to shop-floor data, which allows the monitoring and optimization of the manufacturing process. To achieve this, several papers have proposed various ways to make OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture), a standard protocol for industrial communication, RESTful (Representational State Transfer). As an alternative to REST, GraphQL has recently gained popularity amongst web developers. This paper compares the characteristics of the REST and GraphQL interfaces for OPC UA and conducts measurements on reading and writing data. The measurements show that GraphQL offers better performance than REST when multiple values are read or written, whereas REST is faster with single values. However, using OPC UA directly outperforms both REST and GraphQL interfaces. As a conclusion, this paper recommends using a GraphQL interface alongside an OPC UA server in smart factories to simultaneously yield easy data access, the best performance, and maximum interoperability.

An Aggregated Data Integration Approach to the Web and Cloud Platforms through a Modular REST-Based OPC UA Middleware.

The Internet of Things (IoT) empowers the development of heterogeneous systems for various application domains using embedded devices and diverse data transmission protocols. Collaborative integration of these systems in the industrial domain leads to incompatibility and interoperability at different automation levels, requiring unified coordination to exchange information efficiently. The hardware specifications of these devices are resource-constrained, limiting their performance in resource allocation, data management, and remote process supervision. Hence, unlocking network capabilities with other domains such as cloud and web services is required. This study proposed a platform-independent middleware module incorporating the Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) and Representational State Transfer (REST) paradigms. The object-oriented structure of this middleware allows information contextualization to address interoperability issues and offers aggregated data integration with other domains. RESTful web and cloud platforms were implemented to collect this middleware data, provide remote application support, and enable aggregated resource allocation in a database server. Several performance assessments were conducted on the developed system deployed in Raspberry Pi and Intel NUC PC, which showed acceptable platform resource utilization regarding CPU, bandwidth, and power consumption, with low service, update, and response time requirements. This integrated approach demonstrates an excellent cost-effective prospect for interoperable Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, enables remote process supervision, and offers aggregated bulk data management with wider domains.