The „OPC UA Demonstrator“ from the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association is celebrating its premiere at Automatica 2018, with the aim of promoting the open communication standard as the basis for Industry 4.0 applications. Two use cases will be shown.
Various VDMA departments and member companies have developed information models for the Machine-to-machine communication (M2M) have been developed. They enable platform- and manufacturer-independent communication across different levels of the automation pyramid. Among other things, data models for measured values, status information and much more were specified.
[infotext icon]What is „OPC UA“? The abbreviation stands for „Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture“. If you want to find out more, you can find a short, easy-to-understand video on YouTube. VDMA explanatory video to the M2M standard[/infotext].At Automatica, the capabilities of OPC UA has now been demonstrated using two example applications. Components and systems from more than 20 manufacturers are integrated in a production cell for „fidget spinners“. The control of all these components - from the rotary indexing table and various axes to grippers and Image processing systems - is carried out by means of a so-called „capability-based description“.
As a second example, several manufacturers present a demonstration of the Condition monitoring. This is realised independently of the manufacturer and the robot used and is cloud-based. All status information is clearly displayed in a dashboard.
The VDMA at Automatica 2018: Hall B4, Stand 332
