by Gary Mintchell | May 24, 2017 | Automation, News, Standards, Technology, Uncategorized
Yes, OPC UA at Hannover. Even though (or because of) I’ve been to two subsequent conferences, I’m still catching up on Hannover news.
The growth in popularity of OPC UA led to increased interest among members for space at the OPC Foundation booth. For the last few years it had roughly six sponsors with a partner pod. OPC Foundation found itself extending the booth this year to provide enough space for ten companies and organizations. These included AutomationML, BitCtrl, C-Labs, Kepware, MatrikonOPC, ProSys OPC, Softing, Siemens, Takebishi, and Unified Automation.
Not only did Microsoft include a large display wall featuring OPC UA in its booth, SAP also showed integration of information into the SAP cloud for analysis and action for both discrete and process automation featuring OPC UA at a large wall featured prominently in its booth.
German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) Announced Completion of In-depth Security Analysis of OPC UA
My inbox has been overflowing with responses to the recent security hack on the Internet. This just highlights the issue of cyber security. Anyone in the business of communication over a network must provide as much security assurance as possible.
The OPC Foundation has worked with many security validation companies and organizations to provide the highest level of security. One of the most significant of those organizations is the BSI. Due to the relevance of OPC UA to Industrie 4.0 and Germany Industry, the BSI performed an in-depth security analysis of the OPC UA specifications and a selected reference implementation. A video describing their recommendation and analysis is available on the OPC YouTube Channel.
The BSI has published the results of the OPC UA security analysis on its web site, and the OPC Foundation also published a commented version on the OPC web site in both German and English: BSI web site and OPC web site.
Companion Specs
Companion specifications with other organizations is an excellent way to spread the utility of OPC UA. OPC Foundation President Tom Burke updated the press on the status of many companion specs now in process.
• OPC UA & AutomationML—released
• PLCOpen OPC UA Client for IEC61131—released
• OPC UA for Sercos—released
• M2M—started
• MDIS ( Oil&Gas )—First interoperability workshop for companion spec
• PackML—Release candidate
• Dexpi—MoU started; chair is Nikolaos Papakonstantinou VTT Finland
• VDMA Injection molding machine—Release Candidate
• VDMA Machine Vision—Started
• VDMA Machine Robotic—under preparation
• (Also) MIMOSA CCOM & OPC UA—under preparation
VDMA also presented at the press conference. This German machine builders association represents 3200 companies. It’s goals include the integration of components, machines, and plants. It further seeks cross-company interoperability in the factory.
It cited the need of replacing manuals and data sheets by information models as it seeks standardized information about components and machines from different manufacturers.
It prefers OPC UA because:
• It’s an open standard
• Manufacturer independent
• Not a rigid connection, but offers flexible integration by semantic service description
• Plug & Work
• Can be used for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance
• Offers optimization of production
OPC Foundation Members’ News at Hannover Messe
Softing Industrial offers commercial license for OPC UA .NET Standard Stack
Softing Industrial announced a commercial license for the OPC UA .NET Standard Stack. The OPC UA .NET Standard Stack has been developed by Microsoft, and was contributed as open source project to the OPC Foundation GitHub in June 2016.
The OPC UA .NET Standard Stack targets the .NET Standard Library. .Net Standard allows developing apps that run on all common platforms available today, without requiring platform-specific modifications. Furthermore, cloud applications and services are also supported.
Softing Industrial plans to offer a commercial license for the OPC UA .NET Standard Stack in the fourth quarter 2017, making it available for full commercial use to everyone. Preparatory work and technical coordination with the OPC Foundation as well as Microsoft have already begun. Softing support for the currently available Softing OPC UA .NET Toolkits will not be affected and continue to be available.
OPC UA Meets IoT
Unified Automation integrates OPC UA data sources into IoT solutions without programming
The growing number of devices and machines with OPC Unified Architecture (UA) interfaces, as well as the large installed base of “classic” OPC products, can now easily be integrated into cloud and IoT platforms, like Azure IoT Suite. Unified Automation’s UaGateway offers an easy configure-only solution, without changes on installed systems and without time-consuming programming.
Being already a well-established solution for integrating different OPC interfaces into a single common database and “translating” between different OPC standards, UaGateway has now been extended with the IoT protocols Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) and Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT). This allows the publication of any OPC data into cloud and IoT platforms simply by configuration.
“UaGateway now closes the gap between the large installed base of OPC devices and new upcoming products with fully integrated IoT protocols”, said Jürgen Boxberger, CEO of Unified Automation GmbH “The UaGateway provides industrial grade communication infrastructure for multi-vendor Edge Cloud and Analytics applications.”
The UaGateway can be installed on a variety of different hardware platforms ranging from small embedded rail mount device running embedded Linux or headless device running e.g. Windows 10 IoT Core. Installed on a large scale device the UaGateway provides the communication data hub for industrial Edge Cloud solutions and analytics applications. Fully based on OPC UA technology the UaGateway enables secured and authenticated access to plant floor data giving you full control over your data down to each individual data point. Furthermore, the UaGateway will integrate with Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite Connected factory preconfigured solution.
Comtrol Implements OPC-UA connectivity with MultiLink on IO-Link Master family
Comtrol Corp., a manufacturer of industrial device connectivity products and the official North American IO-Link Competency Center, announced the availability of OPC-UA support with its MultiLink technology on its IO-Link Master family of products.
OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) is a machine to machine communication protocol developed for industrial automation. OPC-UA allows customers to communicate with industrial equipment and systems for data connection and control, freely use an open standard, cross-platform, implement service-oriented architecture (SOA) software and utilize robust security.
Comtrol’s MultiLink technology allows IO-Link Masters to simultaneously provide sensors Process data to PLC platforms, while also sending the sensors ISDU Service and Process data via Modbus TCP or OPC-UA upstream to IIoT/Industry 4.0 Cloud solutions or factory SCADA systems. Comtrol’s IO-Link Masters are available in three industrial Ethernet protocols: EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP and PROFINET IO, which are all capable of running OPC UA with MultiLink.
C-Labs Releases Fourth Generation IoT Technology
C-Labs Corp., a provider of software for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), announced availability of the fourth generation of its C-DEngine core software. The patent-pending software provides embedded IoT capabilities for machine makers such as TRUMPF, machine connectivity for application providers such as AXOOM, and industrial IoT cloud connectivity for Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and other cloud services. C-DEngine is also the core technology in C-Labs’ own Factory-Relay and Machine Monitor products for manufacturers.
According to a PwC survey, 65% of US manufacturers are not yet collecting or using IoT data to enhance their operations, despite availability of the technology. In C-Labs’ experience, this is also true among equipment makers and business application providers who need to securely collect and use data from locations where industrial equipment is installed and used on a daily basis. Concerns about cybersecurity and a lack of IT familiarity with industrial IoT requirements are the top challenges to the success of industrial IoT deployments. C-Labs software products provide live access to industrial equipment and IoT data without compromising or side-stepping enterprise IT security, providing complementary benefits to machine makers, machine owners, and service providers.
by Gary Mintchell | May 4, 2017 | Operations Management, Standards
Manufacturing and production information is rapidly moving to the cloud. I wrote yesterday about what all the companies are trying to do to bring information into their ecosystems. Not all the efforts promote interoperability. Dell is open source, coming the closest to the ideal. Microsoft and Siemens are closest for individual companies.
What they are all lacking is bringing in asset lifecycle information.
Enter MIMOSA, developer and proponent of the most complete asset lifecycle information model. CCOM has been publicly proved in the Oil & Gas Pilot Demo Project and in several private company instances.
Another drawback to these systems occurs when a company implements more than one. Let’s suppose that a company installs both SAP and Microsoft. And then maybe GE Predix. How are these proprietary systems all going to get along together?
MIMOSA has a solution—web service Information Service Bus Model the heart of the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem (OIIE). These open standards describe how to tie together all the parts into an interoperable industrial system.
These standards plus current efforts to define Industry Standard Datatsheet Definition and a joint working group to write a companion specification with OPC UA will be discussed at the open meeting.
There will be an MIMOSA meeting on Sept. 28-29. All are invited to attend. BP Helios Center, 201 Helios Way, Houston, Texas 77079
More information coming.
For deeper information on MIMOSA click on the white paper small ad on the right.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 24, 2017 | Automation, Operations Management, Podcast, Standards
I discuss the importance of interoperability of applications and the role of standards–specifically OPC UA and CCOM, an asset information standard from MIMOSA. I also throw in a description of students I met who compete in FIRST Robotics and a tip for cultivating innovation.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 15, 2017 | Automation, Process Control, Standards
The latest attempt at building an open control platform is driven by ExxonMobil and given some support by the ARC Advisory Group by offering a venue for meetings. I wrote about the meeting during the ARC Forum in Orlando. What I find most interesting is linking this to the Internet of Things.
It will be interesting to see where this leads. I’ve seen attempts in the past to try to get suppliers to ditch their computing or control platforms to go with a generic open system where end users could drive pricing down to commodity levels. Of course, such a system would require lots of engineering—a boon to systems integrators.
Although the dream of complete plug-and-play requiring no integration is a problem waiting a solution. We’ve seen this scenario play out in the computer business. The result was locked down hardware with a measure of interoperability of systems. I think that this is where standards are most valuable.
WindRiver has cast its lot with the ExxonMobil-led Open Process Control initiative and has announced a product in support of the effort. It has announced availability of a software virtualization platform enabling critical infrastructure companies to cost-effectively evolve aging legacy control systems not previously designed to support the connected nature of IoT. Wind River Titanium Control empowers the next generation of on-premise analytics to optimize industrial processes.
“ARC believes the influx of new IIoT technologies now entering the automation market has the potential to be a major disruption to existing business models that have been relatively stable for decades,” said Harry Forbes, research director at ARC Advisory Group, a leading technology research firm for industry and infrastructure. “An excellent example is Titanium Control, which combines Wind River’s long experience in real-time operating systems with on-premise cloud computing technology. This combination enables the virtualization of real-time automation applications that until recently could only be implemented in embedded systems hardware. The implications of this capability for the manufacturing automation market are very far-reaching, and automation suppliers are noticing.”
Because traditional industrial control systems were not designed to support IoT, most are rigid, single purpose, and have a high cost to deploy, integrate, and maintain. Additionally, the obsolescence cycle is driving system updates that require new systems to keep pace with innovation while maintaining or lowering capital costs.
Titanium Control is a commercially deployable on-premise cloud infrastructure that virtualizes traditional physical subsystems using a platform based on open standards. It delivers the high performance, high availability, flexibility, and low latency needed to reduce capital and operating expenses, as well as minimize unscheduled downtime for industrial applications and control services at any scale. Unlike enterprise IT virtualization platforms, it provides high reliability for applications and services deployed at the network edge, for example in fog deployments.
Key features of Titanium Control include:
- De facto standard open source software for on-premise cloud and virtualization, including Linux, real-time Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and OpenStack
- High performance and high availability with accelerated vSwitch and inter-VM communication, plus virtual infrastructure management
- Security features including isolation, secure boot and Trusted Platform Module enabled through Enhanced Platform Awareness
- Scalability from two to over 100 compute nodes
- Hitless software updates and patching with no interruption to services or applications
“With the emergence of Industrial IoT, companies are looking to deploy next-generation open and secure control systems; Titanium Control addresses this need, and is in active trials with customers in industries ranging from manufacturing to energy to healthcare,” said Jim Douglas, president of Wind River. “Our software has been providing these companies with powerful ways to increase efficiency and bolster safety, security, and reliability for the last 35 years. With the addition of Titanium Control to our product portfolio, Wind River is driving a new industrial era through virtualization, real-time performance and edge-to-cloud connectivity.”
Titanium Control is part of the Wind River Titanium Cloud portfolio of virtualization products for the deployment of critical services from operations to data center environments that require real-time performance and continuous service availability. It is optimized for Intel Xeon processors, and is pre-validated on hardware from the leading providers of Intel-based servers.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 20, 2017 | Automation, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Software, Standards
Open Process Automation and IT/OT Convergence. Thursday, the last day of the ARC Forum, is not always all that well attended. The 2017 edition witnessed two sessions that held the attention of the later departing attendees. These two attracted a reasonably good attendance.
I didn’t do the IT/OT one, but I had great interest in the Open Process Automation Forum (Open DCS?).
This was my 20th ARC Forum. My first Forum featured another open control series of meetings on Thursday morning—The Open Modular Architecture Controller group. That group of engineers and managers sought to specify a PLC based upon the computing standards of the time. The culmination of that effort was a CompactPCI chassis cobbled together by an entrepreneur. It was not picked up. Meanwhile OMAC pivoted when end user companies principally P&G and Nestle moved the focus to packaging machines. The goal became machines that used standard states and HMI in order to reduce training time for operators as they moved from machine to machine.
ExxonMobil appeared at the Forum last year with an idea. It wished to reduce the cost to deploy and eventually upgrade its control systems. It had worked with Lockheed Martin to devise a plan from the avionics industry (FACE).
This session at the Forum updated attendees with progress. It has formed under The Open Group as the Open Process Automation Forum. Although driven by ExxonMobil initially, the goal is to form a broad alliance of owner/operators, end users, systems integrators, and suppliers developing this new automation platform.
Many people at the conference relate this effort to the old OMAC work. They see the end game as a customer trying to drive down the cost of the system. Especially a customer who faces two problems: the immediate problem of upgrading old technology; the long range cost of upgrading technology to newer levels.
Another way to view this initiative is more altruistic in the sense of driving disruptive change in the market for all users using standards.
I am conflicted in trying to understand the dynamics of the situation. As a proponent of standards, I applaud the effort to find ways to implement standards and interoperability. Interoperability has been proven in many industries as a driver for business growth. The idea of decoupling hardware and software holds great promise for future upgrades.
But if, in effect, the customers simply wish to drive automation components and software to commodity level, then I see problems. Such ideas have killed entire industries in the past.
I also look at the old PC technology when there many players developing cards for the PC bus to add on to an “IBM PC.” But over time, technology enabled chip manufacturers to incorporate all those features into the main CPU and the industry returned to basically a single source for a computer.
Predictions? I’m not making any right now. However…
This process is now more than a year old, and yet, the theme of the Forum in Orlando was a plea for participation. There were few other owner/operators. Even though almost all major suppliers have signed on, only two (Schneider Electric and Yokogawa) appear to be active. The leaders have put forth an ambitious timing plan. The group is going to have to build a critical mass of participants quickly.
One more point. There is an age-old tension between an end-user wishing to reduce procurement costs by being able to competitively bid everything. However that means that someone must assemble all the components. On the other hand, end user companies also like partnerships with suppliers for joint development and better service.
By decoupling end user from supplier, something or someone must fill the gap. That would be the system integrator, I guess.
There are many questions.
Without further comment, I’ll leave you with the Open Process Automation Forum’s Vision Statement.
Composed of a broad group of end users, product suppliers, systems integrators, and academics, the Forum will create a technologically appropriate open process automation architecture and specifications along with business guidance for its adoption and use.
- This will result in a standards-based open, secure, and interoperable process automation architecture and instances thereof that have the following characteristics:
Easily integrates best-in-class components to provide timely access to leading edge performance
- Employs an adaptive intrinsic security model
- Enables the procurement and modular interaction of certified conformant components into systems that are fit-for-purpose for the end users’ needs
- Is commercially available and applicable to multiple industry sectors
- Protects suppliers’ Intellectual Property within conformant components
- Enables portability and preservation of end users’ application software
- Significantly reduces the difficulty of future replacements and reduces the lifecycle cost of systems
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 16, 2016 | News, Operations Management, Organizations, Standards
Interoperability, standardization, and collaboration were the key words for OPC Foundation in 2016. Tom Burke, OPC Foundation President, recently recapped a busy 2016 for the Foundation. Adoption of OPC UA has been gaining momentum in the market. Collaboration with other groups is growing. And the technology is finally beginning to show significant use beyond industrial automation.
Burke says, “It has been a very exciting year. We have seen record growth in adoption of the OPC UA technology across multiple domains and vertical markets. The OPC Foundation policy of being truly open has expanded the reach of the OPC technology. The specifications are available to everyone, the technology is open sourced, and now we have opened up our certification labs to non-members.”
The OPC Foundation byline since the beginning has been recognized as the “The Interoperability Standard for Industrial Automation.” With the significant international membership growth and adoption of the OPC UA technology across multiple vertical markets the byline of the OPC Foundation has been ratified as “The Industrial Interoperability Standard.” This byline recognizes the case that OPC is no longer just for automation.
OPC UA specifications and technology are actively being deployed across global boundaries supplying the key infrastructure for everything related to the Internet of Everything (IIoT, Industrie 4.0, China 2025, IIC, M2M…); inclusive of:
- numerous testbeds with the OPC UA technology being standardized in the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
- being recognized as the communication and information modeling standard for Industrie 4.0
- OPC UA being finalized as a Chinese National Standard
In May 2016, BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security) conducted a thorough security analysis of OPC UA and found it exceeded the security requirements for Industrie 4.0.
Collaboration with numerous organizations beyond industrial automation is the strategy and path forward to allow information integration from the embedded world to the cloud.
New members and new products are emerging as end users are looking for information solutions for IIoT, and the OPC UA technology is well-positioned to address the needs of the Internet of Everything.
Numerous organizations continue to partner with the OPC Foundation and/or develop companion specifications for their respective information models to seamlessly plug into OPC UA.
Organizations announcing releases of their companion specifications in 2016 for the OPC UA technology included:
• AutomationML
• PLCopen
• AIM
• VDMA: Injection Molding (status: release candidate)
• VDMA: Vision Cameras (status: in foundation)
• VDMA: Robotics, starting with the help of KUKA (status: in preparation)
VDMA is very active standardizing on OPC UA information models and expects to rollout a multitude of additional information models in 2017, leveraging OPC UA information integration communication as it’s strategy for seamless information integration and interoperability.
Board of Directors
Board members are elected as individuals for a two-year term. Elected to new 2-year terms were: Russ Agrusa, (ICONICS), Veronika Schmid-Lutz (SAP), Stefan Hoppe (Beckhoff) (also VP of OPC Foundation), and Matthias Damm (Ascolab). Also on the OPC Foundation Board of Directors are Thomas Burke (OPC Foundation), Thomas Hahn (Siemens) (also VP of OPC Foundation), Matt Vasey (Microsoft), and Ziad Kaakani (Honeywell) (also Treasurer of OPC Foundation), and Shinji Oda (Yokogawa).
