Towards a Unified Management Interface for 5G Sensor Networks: Interoperability between Yet Another Next Generation and Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture.

Fifth-generation (5G) sensor networks are critical enablers of Industry 4.0, facilitating real-time monitoring and control of industrial processes. However, significant challenges to their deployment in industrial settings remain, such as a lack of support for interoperability and manageability with existing industrial applications and the specialized technical expertise required for the management of private 5G sensor networks. This research proposes a solution to achieve interoperability between private 5G sensor networks and industrial applications by mapping Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) models to Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) models. An OPC UA pyang plugin, developed to convert YANG models into OPC UA design model files, has been made available on GitHub for open access. The key finding of this research is that the proposed solution enables seamless interoperability without requiring modifications to the private 5G sensor network components, thus enhancing the efficiency and reliability of industrial automation systems. By leveraging existing industrial applications, the management and monitoring of private 5G networks are streamlined. Unlike prior studies that explored OPC UA's integration with other protocols, this work is the first to focus on the YANG-OPC UA integration, filling a critical gap in Industry 4.0 enablement research.

Industrial Internet of Things Gateway with OPC UA Based on Sitara AM335X with ModbusE Acquisition Cycle Performance Analysis.

This article presents the hardware and software architectures used to implement the Modbus Extension (ModbusE) IIoT gateway, the performance of the acquisition cycle at the PRU real-time programmable core level, the acquisition cycle communication flow-dispatcher-OPC UA server (Linux)-OPC UA client (Windows) as well as the performance analysis of data communications between the IIoT ModbusE gateway and the OPC UA client (Windows). In order to be able to implement both the ModbusE acquisition cycle and the OPC UA server, the BeagleBone Black Board was chosen as the hardware platform. This board uses the Sitara AM335x processor (Texas Instruments (TI), Dallas, TX, USA) from Texas Instruments. Thus, the acquisition cycle was implemented on the PRU0 real-time core, and the OPC UA server, running under the Linux operating system, was implemented on the ARM Cortex A8 processor. From the analysis of the communication speed of the messages between the OPC UA client and the ModbusE servers, it was found that the ModbusE acquisition cycle speed was higher than the acquisition speed of the OPC UA client.

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.

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.

Validation of High-Availability Model for Edge Devices and IIoT.

Competitiveness in industry requires smooth, efficient, and high-quality operation. For some industrial applications or process control and monitoring applications, it is necessary to achieve high availability and reliability because, for example, the failure of availability in industrial production can have serious consequences for the operation and profitability of the company, as well as for the safety of employees and the surrounding environment. At present, many new technologies that use data obtained from various sensors for evaluation or decision-making require the minimization of data processing latency to meet the needs of real-time applications. Cloud/Fog and Edge computing technologies have been proposed to overcome latency issues and to increase computing power. However, industrial applications also require the high availability and reliability of devices and systems. The potential malfunction of Edge devices can cause a failure of applications, and the unavailability of Edge computing results can have a significant impact on manufacturing processes. Therefore, our article deals with the creation and validation of an enhanced Edge device model, which in contrast to the current solutions, is aimed not only at the integration of various sensors within manufacturing solutions, but also brings the required redundancy to enable the high availability of Edge devices. In the model, we use Edge computing, which performs the recording of sensed data from various types of sensors, synchronizes them, and makes them available for decision making by applications in the Cloud. We focus on creating a suitable Edge device model that works with the redundancy, by using either mirroring or duplexing via a secondary Edge device. This enables high Edge device availability and rapid system recovery in the event of a failure of the primary Edge device. The created model of high availability is based on the mirroring and duplexing of the Edge devices, which support two protocols: OPC UA and MQTT. The models were implemented in the Node-Red software, tested, and subsequently validated and compared to confirm the required recovery time and 100% redundancy of the Edge device. In the contrast to the currently available Edge solutions, our proposed extended model based on Edge mirroring is able to address most of the critical cases, where fast recovery is required, and no adjustments are needed for critical applications. The maturity level of Edge high availability can be further extended by applying Edge duplexing for process control.

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.

Proposal for an IIoT Device Solution According to Industry 4.0 Concept.

Today, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices are very often used to collect manufacturing process data. The integration of industrial data is increasingly being promoted by the Open Platform Communications United Architecture (OPC UA). However, available IIoT devices are limited by the features they provide; therefore, we decided to design an IIoT device taking advantage of the benefits arising from OPC UA. The design procedure was based on the creation of sequences of steps resulting in a workflow that was transformed into a finite state machine (FSM) model. The FSM model was transformed into an OPC UA object, which was implemented in the proposed IIoT. The OPC UA object makes it possible to monitor events and provide important information based on a client's criteria. The result was the design and implementation of an IIoT device that provides improved monitoring and data acquisition, enabling improved control of the manufacturing process.

Autoencoder-Ensemble-Based Unsupervised Selection of Production-Relevant Variables for Context-Aware Fault Diagnosis.

Smart factories are complex; with the increased complexity of employed cyber-physical systems, the complexity evolves further. Cyber-physical systems produce high amounts of data that are hard to capture and challenging to analyze. Real-time recording of all data is not possible due to limited network capabilities. Limited network capabilities are the reason for a chain of faults introduced via active surveillance during fault diagnosis. These introduced faults may slow down production or lead to an outage of the production line. Here, we present a novel approach to automatically select production-relevant shop floor parameters to decrease the number of surveyed variables and, at the same time, maintain quality in fault diagnosis without overloading the network. We were able to achieve higher throughput, mitigate communication losses and prevent the disruption of factory instructions. Our approach uses an autoencoder ensemble via minority voting to differentiate between normal-always on-variables and production variables that may yield a higher entropy. Our approach has been tested in a production-equal smart factory and was cross-validated by a domain expert.

Industrial Shared Wireless Communication Systems-Use Case of Autonomous Guided Vehicles with Collaborative Robot.

Dedicated fieldbuses were developed to provide temporal determinisms for industrial distributed real-time systems. In the early stages, communication systems were dedicated to a single protocol and generally supported a single service. Industrial Ethernet, which is used today, supports many concurrent services, but usually only one real-time protocol at a time. However, shop-floor communication must support a range of different traffic from messages with strict real-time requirements such as time-driven messages with process data and event-driven security messages to diagnostic messages that have more relaxed temporal requirements. Thus, it is necessary to combine different real-time protocols into one communication network. This raises many challenges, especially when the goal is to use wireless communication. There is no research work on that area and this paper attempts to fill in that gap. It is a result of some experiments that were conducted while connecting a Collaborative Robot CoBotAGV with a production station for which two real-time protocols, Profinet and OPC UA, had to be combined into one wireless network interface. The first protocol was for the exchange of processing data, while the latter integrated the vehicle with Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Transport Management System (TMS). The paper presents the real-time capabilities of such a combination-an achievable communication cycle and jitter.

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.

A Service-Oriented Real-Time Communication Scheme for AUTOSAR Adaptive Using OPC UA and Time-Sensitive Networking.

The transportation industry is facing major challenges that come along with innovative trends like autonomous driving. Due to the growing amount of network participants, smart sensors, and mixed-critical data, scalability and interoperability have become key factors of cost-efficient vehicle engineering. One solution to overcome these challenges is the AUTOSAR Adaptive software platform. Its service-oriented communication methodology allows a standardized data exchange that is not bound to a specific middleware protocol. OPC UA is a communication standard that is well-established in modern industrial automation. In addition to its Client-Server communication pattern, the newly released Publish-Subscribe (PubSub) architecture promotes scalability. PubSub is designed to work in conjunction with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), a collection of standards that add real-time aspects to standard Ethernet networks. TSN allows services with different requirements to share a single physical network. In this paper, we specify an integration approach of AUTOSAR Adaptive, OPC UA, and TSN. It combines the benefits of these three technologies to provide deterministic high-speed communication. Our main contribution is the architecture for the binding between Adaptive Platform and OPC UA. With a prototypical implementation, we prove that a combination of OPC UA Client-Server and PubSub qualifies as a middleware solution for service-oriented communication in AUTOSAR.

Automated Design and Integration of Asset Administration Shells in Components of Industry 4.0.

One of the central concepts in the principles of Industry 4.0 relates to the methodology for designing and implementing the digital shell of the manufacturing process components. This concept, the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), embodies a systematically formed, standardized data envelope of a concrete component within Industry 4.0. The paper discusses the AAS in terms of its structure, its components, the sub-models that form a substantial part of the shell's content, and its communication protocols (Open Platform Communication-Unified Architecture (OPC UA) and MQTT) or SW interfaces enabling vertical and horizontal communication to involve other components and levels of management systems. Using a case study of a virtual assembly line that integrates AASs into the technological process, the authors present a comprehensive analysis centered on forming AASs for individual components. In the given context, the manual AAS creation mode exploiting framework-based automated generation, which forms the AAS via a configuration wizard, is assessed. Another outcome consists of the activation of a virtual assembly line connected to real AASs, a step that allows us verify the properties of the distributed manufacturing management. Moreover, a discrete event system was modeled for the case study, enabling the effective application of the Industry 4.0 solution.

Approaching OPC UA Publish-Subscribe in the Context of UDP-Based Multi-Channel Communication and Image Transmission.

The Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol is a key enabler of Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). OPC UA is already accepted by the industry and its presence is expected to reach more and more fields, applications, and hierarchical levels. Advances within the latest specifications are providing the opportunity to extend the capabilities and the applicability of the protocol, targeting better performances in terms of data volumes, speed, availability, footprint, and security. Continuing previous researches focusing on the publish-subscribe (pub/sub) mechanism and real-time constraints, the current study aims to consider higher data-volumes, approach the multi-channel User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based communication, and analyze the robustness of the developed mechanism in the context of long-term data transmission. Consequently, the research proposes to extend the applicability of the OPC UA in the context of image transmission. Although highly needed, the image transmission after processing is currently beyond the reach of OPC UA or other legacy industrial protocols, being considered as a separate fraction in the industrial environment. The concept and developments are applied considering both the end-of-line industrial manufacturing process in the automotive sector and the car-to-infrastructure communication. Without special hardware constraints, the obtained results are proven to be appreciable, opening various future perspectives for image transmission using OPC UA.

DDS and OPC UA Protocol Coexistence Solution in Real-Time and Industry 4.0 Context Using Non-Ideal Infrastructure.

Continuing the evolution towards Industry 4.0, the industrial communication protocols represent a significant topic of interest, as real-time data exchange between multiple devices constitute the pillar of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) scenarios. Although the legacy protocols are still persistent in the industry, the transition was initiated by the key Industry 4.0 facilitating protocol, the Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA). OPC UA has to reach the envisioned applicability, and it therefore has to consider coexistence with other emerging real-time oriented protocols in the production lines. The Data Distribution Service (DDS) will certainly be present in future architectures in some areas as robots, co-bots, and compact units. The current paper proposes a solution to evaluate the real-time coexistence of OPC UA and DDS protocols, functioning in parallel and in a gateway context. The purpose is to confirm the compatibility and feasibility between the two protocols alongside a general definition of criteria and expectations from an architectural point of view, pointing out advantages and disadvantages in a neutral manner, shaping a comprehensive view of the possibilities. The researched architecture is meant to comply with both performance comparison scenarios and interaction scenarios over a gateway application. Considering the industrial tendencies, the developed solution is applied using non-ideal infrastructures to provide a more feasible and faster applicability in the production lines.

OPC UA Publish-Subscribe and VSOME/IP Notify-Subscribe Based Gateway Application in the Context of Car to Infrastructure Communication.

With the recent advances in the area of OPC UA interfacing and the continuously growing requirements of the industrial automation world, combined with the more and more complex configurations of ECUs inside vehicles and services associated to car to infrastructure and even car to car communications, the gap between the two domains must be analyzed and filled. This gap occurred mainly because of the rigidness and lack of transparency of the software-hardware part of the automotive sector and the new demands for car to infrastructure communications. The issues are related to protocols as well as to conceptual views regarding requirements and already adopted individual directions. The industrial world is in the Industry 4.0 era, and in the Industrial Internet of Things context, its key interfacing enabler is OPC UA. Mainly to accommodate requirements related, among others, to high volumes, transfer rates, larger numbers of nodes, improved coordination and services, OPC UA enhances within its specifications the Publish-Subscribe mechanism and the TSN technology. In the OPC UA context, together with the VSOME/IP Notify-Subscribe mechanism, the current work is stepping toward a better understanding of the current relation between the needs of the industry and the suitable technologies, providing in-depth analysis on the most recent paradigms developed for data transmission, taking in consideration the real-time capabilities and use-cases of high concern in automation and automotive domains, and toward obtaining a VSOME/IP-OPC UA Gateway that includes the necessary characteristics and services in order to fill the protocol-related gap between the above mentioned fields. The developed case study results are proving the efficiency of the concept and are providing a better understanding regarding the impact between ongoing solutions and future requirements.

Improving OPC UA Publish-Subscribe Mechanism over UDP with Synchronization Algorithm and Multithreading Broker Application.

Communication protocols are evolving continuously as the interfacing and interoperability requirements are the foundation of Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and the Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol is a major enabling technology. OPC UA was adopted by the industry, and research is continuously carried out to extend and to improve its capabilities, to fulfil the growing requirements of specific industries and hierarchical levels. Consistent issues that have to be approached are related to the latest specifications and the real-time context that could extend the applicability of the protocol and bring significant benefits in terms of speed, data volumes, footprint, security. The real-time context is essential in the automotive sector and it is highly developed within some specific protocols. The current work approaches first the conceptual analysis to improve the OPC UA interfacing using the Publish-Subscribe mechanism, focusing on real-time constraints and role distribution between entities, and considering some well-founded interfacing strategies from the automotive sector. The conceptual analysis is materialized into a solution that takes OPC UA Publish-Subscribe over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) mechanism to the next level by developing a synchronization algorithm and a multithreading broker application to obtain real time responsiveness and increased efficiency by lowering the publisher and the subscriber footprint and computational effort, reducing the difficulty of sending larger volumes of data for various subscribers and the charge on the network and services in terms of polling and filtering. The proof of concept is evaluated and the results prove the efficiency of the approach and the solution.

New Approaches to Implementing the SmartJacket into Industry 4.0 ‡.

The paper discusses the possibilities of incorporating sensors and indicators into the environment of an Industry 4.0 digital factory. The concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is characterized via a brief description of the RAMI 4.0 and I4.0 component model. In this context, the article outlines the structure of an I4.0 production component, interpreting such an item as a body integrating the asset and its electronic form, namely, the Asset Administration Shell (AAS). The formation of the AAS sub-models from the perspectives of identification, communication, configuration, safety, and condition monitoring is also described to complete the main analysis. Importantly, the authors utilize concrete use cases to demonstrate the roles of the given I4.0 component model and relevant SW technologies in creating the AAS. In this context, the use cases embody applications where an operator wearing a SmartJacket equipped with sensors and indicators ensures systematic data collection by passing through the manufacturing process. The set of collected information then enables the operator and the system server to monitor and intervene in the production cycle. The advantages and disadvantages of the individual scenarios are summarized to support relevant analysis of the entire problem.

Industry 4.0: Machinery integration with supply chain and logistics in compliance with Italian regulations.

This paper shows a real overview of the interconnection and automated integration of 4.0 machinery within the supply chain or logistics of two companies in the southern Italian territory. The authors provide an exhaustive analysis of the Italian legislation and the strict requirements in order to assess which investments are part of Industry 4.0 with a focus on business risk. The work also shows the potential of a new framework developed that allows using OPC-UA and Modbus protocols to access the functional variables of the 4.0 machinery in a bidirectional way, directly from cloud applications. The proposed solutions help companies to develop more efficient production processes and to fulfil the requirements imposed by Italian regulations in order to benefit from Industry 4.0 financial aid.

Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard (LADS): A Communication Standard Based on OPC UA for Networked Laboratories.

In a similar vein to Industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries, digitisation is making inroads in the laboratory industry in the form of Laboratory 4.0, or networked laboratories. Companies can gain decisive competitive edges by automating their work processes and systems and networking them with each other and primary IT systems. A uniform communication standard such as OPC UA, a well-established global standard in the aforementioned manufacturing industries, is essential to a modular, scalable network of heterogeneous laboratory structures. Can the laboratory industry benefit from this standard and the years of development experience? In SPECTARIS, the German Industry Association for Optics, Photonics, Analytical and Medical Technologies, over 30 global market leaders, hidden champions and drivers of innovation in the laboratory industry put their heads together in the "Networked Laboratory Devices" working group and created the "Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard", or LADS for short. Unlike numerous other attempts to establish communication standards for laboratories, LADS is based on the advanced OPC UA standard and takes an agnostic approach to cover the variety of devices, systems and requirements in laboratories. In this context, "agnostic" refers to the generic design and display of potentially as-yet-unknown aspects of the flow of information or communication structures. For the first time, LADS allows for modular, scalable networking of heterogeneous laboratory structures, efficient data transfers and - currently unused - user, process and device-based data analysis (keywords: big data, predictive analytics, data science) - even taking normative requirements into consideration. This agnostic modelling makes LADS a future-proof communication solution for the laboratory industry, the likes of which the world has never seen.