OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a cross-platform and open-source communication protocol used to connect industrial machines to each other and to the cloud. It was developed by the OPC Foundation and was released in 2008.
OPC UA can be an important tool in an Industry 4.0 environment. As the internet of things (IoT) enters industrial settings, OPC UA can be used to improve control, monitoring, and interoperability.
OPC UA is available on a wide array of platforms. It allows devices from different vendors to communicate and share data. It can also be used by cloud platforms to monitor or control machines through management software elsewhere.
OPC UA uses end-to-end encryption to secure the information being sent between machines or between a machine and the cloud. This prevents bad actors from accessing information that they should not have and protects against unauthorized control of machines utilizing OPC UA.
Yaskawa’s robot controllers act as servers in OPC UA systems.
The OPC UA Server node on Yaskawa’s robot controllers allows clients to do the following:
- Read variables and I/O data
- Write variables and I/O data
- Control the robot remotely (e.g. starting jobs, starting servos, set hold on robot)
- Access robot state data (alarms, errors, servo status, motor temperatures, and much more)
In practice, OPC UA on our robots may allow customers to
- Connect to ERP, MES, and SCADA systems for analytics and monitoring
- Monitor the state of Yaskawa robots to quickly understand if any human intervention is needed.
- View information about temperature, motor lifetimes and time on, serial numbers, and other data that may help inform maintenance.
- Track robot uptime and other relevant statistics for business analytics
- Start servos, switch jobs, and start jobs remotely through a web interface
- Reset errors and alarms remotely if there are problems
- Read or write data to the robot’s variables, M-Registers, or I/O to influence the robot’s execution of a job
- Communicate securely to another industrial machine from another manufacturer connected through the network
Here is an example of a network utilizing OPC UA directly from the OPC UA for Robotics spec, linked below.
One potential setup is shown in the following image, also taken from the OPC UA for Robotics spec
The Yaskawa OPC UA MotoPlus application implements the OPC UA Robotics Companion Specification information model, developed by the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) and the OPC Foundation. The information model is linked below. This means that the Yaskawa OPC UA server processes data and then exposes that data to clients in a format meeting OPC UA standards. Clients may connect and interact with the robot controller and can expect the robot to provide information in the format that the client is expecting. The image below shows some of the data that a robotic arm is meant to expose.
Since all OPC UA devices adhere to standard information models which share a consistent data model, this massively improves the ease of integrating systems from multiple different vendors. It also means that there are more pre-existing third-party applications that easily interact with a Yaskawa controller with very little additional configuration.
The OPC UA Server is a paid software option. No additional hardware is needed. Only a MotoPlus app, a MotoPlus app license, and the Yaskawa OPCUA Config Editor are needed to set up the OPC UA server on a controller. A third-party client application is needed to interact with the OPC UA Server on the robot controller, however.
The Yaskawa OPCUA Config Editor allows customers to easily configure their OPC UA server on Yaskawa robot controllers as needed. The Yaskawa OPCUA Config Editor generates a .JBI file containing the configuration data which clients can easily load onto their controller. It is straightforward enough that after the initial setup, there should be little need for maintenance involving Yaskawa personnel.
Customers have a wide range of choices for OPC UA PC client applications, for example UA Expert or Kepware. Many of these third-party applications are free but may have paid options for additional features or plug-ins. UA Expert is recommended, as the free version has a wide array of features.
Information model used by Yaskawa:
https://reference.opcfoundation.org/Robotics/v100/docs/
General Information:
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.