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Assessing construction interoperability using a MDA and SOA architecture from an e-business perspective
Published in Manuel Martínez, Raimar Scherer, eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, 2020
A. Grilo, R. Jardim-Gonçalves, A. Steiger-Garção
Known service-oriented architectures are Microsoft’s DCOM, IBM’s DSOM protocol or the OMG’s Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification. Web services are implemented in XML (eXtended Markup Language). The network services are described using the WSDL (Web Services Description Language), and the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is the communication protocol adopted. The registration of the services is in the UDDI registry (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). Although providing a significant contribution, the SOA alone is not yet the answer to achieve seamless interoperability between applications. For example, despite the efforts done to ensure compatibility between all the SOAP implementations, currently there is no unique standard. The Web Services Interoperability Organization, WS-I, is a good example of an organization supporting Web services interoperability across platforms, operating systems and programming languages, and that has been developing efforts for the convergence and support of generic protocols for the interoperable exchange of messages between Web services (WSI, 2006).
Open Platform Communications (OPC)
Published in Chanchal Dey, Sunit Kumar Sen, Industrial Automation Technologies, 2020
Initially, the OPC specification was based on OLE, Component Object Model (COM), and Distributed COM (DCOM) technologies of Microsoft Windows OS family. The specifications defined a standard set of objects, interfaces, and methods. COM provides a communication interface layer that allows local and remote procedure calls between processes. DCOM is the natural extension of COM that supports communication among objects on networked computers. OPC was designed to bridge Windows-based applications, on the one hand, with process control hardware and software applications, on the other hand. In OPC, the process of accessing field data from the shop floor level remains the same irrespective of type and source of data. The objective was to facilitate interoperability in process control and manufacturing automation sectors. These specifications, known as OPC Classic, found acceptance across multiple industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities, renewable energy, building automation, and numerous others. Later on, OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) was developed by OPC Foundation to address challenges in security concerns and data modeling that came into being with the introduction of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) in manufacturing sectors. OPC UA has rich features and is an open platform architecture. It is scalable, extensible, and future-proof. OPC UA can be implemented with JAVA, Microsoft, .NET or C, eliminating the need to use a Microsoft Windows based platform of earlier OPC versions. OPC UA combines the functionality of the existing OPC interfaces with newer technologies like XML and Web Services to deliver higher level MIS and ERP support.
Development of a Cyber-Physical framework for monitoring and teleoperation of a CNC lathe based on MTconnect and OPC protocols
Published in International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2018
Alberto José Álvares, Luiz Eduardo Santos de Oliveira, Joao Carlos Espindola Ferreira
OPC-UA (OPC Foundation, 2017) is a machine-to-machine communication protocol for industrial automation that was developed by the OPC Foundation (Singh 2017). OPC-UA is based on COM/DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) technology, being a platform-independent service-oriented architecture that integrates all the functionalities of the individual OPC, an industrial telecommunications protocol, classic specifications into one extensible framework. OPC-UA provides interoperability for data exchange among the shop floor and strategic decision levels of organisations (Mahnke, Leitner, and Damm 2009).
Communication method for manufacturing services in a cyber–physical manufacturing cloud
Published in International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2018
S. M. Nahian Al Sunny, Xiaoqing F. Liu, Md Rakib Shahriar
OLE for Process Control (OPC) is a significant of many manufacturing networks at higher levels by offering a standardised interface for communication of industrial data. Maintained by the OPC Foundation, The OPC specification has combined object linking and embedding (OLE), component object model (COM), and distributed component object model (DCOM) technologies developed by Microsoft (Leitner and Mahnke 2006). The OPC specification outlined a standard set of objects, interfaces, and methods for use in process control and manufacturing automation applications to facilitate interoperability. OPC data access (OPC DA) is the most commonly used OPC specification, which is used to read and write real-time data. It allows real-time communication of process values over Ethernet with a client-server model. Several other variants of OPC have also been developed, including OPC historical data access which permits for acquiring stored values, OPC data exchange for two-way communication using a server-server model and OPC XML Data Access, which uses XML for communication. Later in 2006, the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) has been specified and was being tested and implemented through its Early Adopters program. OPC UA (IEC 62541) combines the functionality of the existing OPC interfaces with new technologies such as XML and Web Services to deliver higher level manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) support. OPC and OPC UA provided the opportunity of accessing machine tool not only from factory floor but also from outside the factory. In recent years, MTConnect has acquired much acknowledgements after the release of its version 1.0 in 2008 (Vijayaraghavan et al. 2008). MTConnect is designed to enhance interoperability of manufacturing machines by providing a uniform XML-based data reporting structure. It is fundamentally a read-only framework, i.e. its principal focus is data monitoring and analysis. MTConnect enables manufacturing machines to be monitored over the Internet. The primary objective of MTConnect is to create a universal machine language that is understandable to all machines and also to the users. MTConnect provides a RESTful interface – there is no need of establishing any session or logon/logoff sequence to acquire data. As MTConnect is not designed for any specific type of machines, several types of manufacturing resources such as CNC machine, industrial robot, milling machine, 3D printer (Liu, Sunny, et al. 2016) currently are made compatible with MTConnect standard. In 2010, The OPC Foundation and the MTConnect Institute declared a cooperation to ensure interoperability and consistency between the two standards (ThomasNet 2010). AutomationML (Automation Markup Language) is another promising upcoming open standard series (IEC 62714) for the description of production plants and plant components (Drath et al. 2008). AutomationML describes the contents – what is exchanged between the parties and systems involved. It helps to model plants and plant components with their skills, topology, interfaces, and relations to others, geometry, kinematics, and even logic and behaviour. A joint working group of the AutomationML e.V. and the OPC Foundation deals with the creation of a companion specification ‘AutomationML in OPC UA’ (Henssen and Schleipen 2014).