An Implementation of OPC UA for Machine-to-Machine Communications in a Smart Factory
Santhana Pandiyan Muniraj, Xun Xu
Abstract
In recent years, the development of machine-to-machine communication and the Industrial Internet of Things has paved the way for developing intelligent and self-governing autonomous machines in manufacturing businesses. These autonomous machines are capable of collecting data from various sensing devices and other interconnected machine systems by utilising communication protocols such as OPC UA. Currently, these machines have the capabilities to send and receive data that is sufficient for autonomous decision-making. However, current low-level machine-to-machine communication involves only processing data, and higher-level decision-making actions are limited to an individual machine system instead of communications among interconnected machines. This paper focuses on enhancing such limitations in the machine-to-machine communication using OPC UA protocols, which may involve making decisions in responding to received data and delivering commanding actions to the machines connected vertically (higher-level machines) and horizontally (same level machines). In doing so, factories are made smart via more proactive machine-to-machine communications. The framework of the presented concept was developed and verified using python OPC UA server-client instances.