Secure Interoperability Between Machines and Devices

The OPC Foundation participated as a Platinum Sponsor at the ARC Advisory Group’s 22nd India Forum (July 10-11, 2024) titled Accelerate Transformation in the Age of AI, Open Automation, and Sustainability. In his presentation, S. Manohar, General Manager, VDMA South India, representing OPC Foundation, discussed the importance of transforming shop floor communication through OPC UA (Open Platform Communication for Unified Architecture). He emphasized the need for interoperability between machines and devices to facilitate seamless data flow, which is crucial for AI and Industry 4.0 applications. “The future will be all about interoperability,” said Manohar. This blog captures the highlights of his presentation. It can be viewed in entirety on YouTube.

Interoperability Between Machines and Devices

In the business world, we have been using laptops, computers, where data goes between the laptops and computers. But what is needed now is the interoperability between the machines and devices on the shop floor and also to get the data across to the platforms from the shop floor, whether it's MES or ERPs, and then across to the analytics dashboards. In this context, Manohar explained the following:

• The organization: OPC Foundation, the world’s largest ecosystem for industrial interoperability.

• The technology: OPC UA (Open Platform Communication for Unified Architecture) for secure, semantic industrial interoperability.

• Regional representative: OPC Hub India. Manohar represents VDMA on the OPC UA FORUM India steering committee.

After giving an organizational overview of the OPC Foundation, Manohar traced the journey of the OPC UA from 2003-2023.

The OPC UA journey began with the OPC Classic on the process engineering side and morphed to the OPC UA through developments. Next, he spoke about the automation pyramid where the data moves from the field sensors to the control level, supervisor level, panel level, etc. It's a step-by-step movement. Earlier, when there were different protocols, multiple servers were needed for the data and these had to converge into an aggregation server to move forward. Now, with OPC UA the data moves seamlessly across the ecosystem. Incidentally, it is not only within the factory, but also across factories, across the supply chain and the demand chain system. OPC UA is not a protocol. It is a platform for interoperability of communication of information and data between devices and between platforms to make sense of the data for informed business decisions. And it can run messaging protocols, such as TCP, UDP, and MQTT.  

Further, Manohar explained via a graphic as to how OPC UA serves as a basis for the global production language. From the erstwhile legacy, I3.0. proprietary communication to Industry 4.0 and finally to OPC UA; then there is mesh communication where the data flows between different brands or different types of machines, whether it's milling or drilling, five-axis, six-axis, and various other machines. And then domain-specific organized information is required; and finally cross-domain.  All this data has to be efficiently handled.

VDMA and OPC UA

The VDMA represents more than 3,600 member companies and is the voice of the mechanical engineering industry in Germany and Europe. The VDMA supports member organizations in developing OPC UA companion specifications for the industry/ sector.

Companion Specifications

Companion specifications are essential for standardized communication between different machines and systems, ensuring efficient production and enabling Industry 4.0 applications. OPC UA enables a platform independent, interoperable and vendor independent integration of different machines in production. This ensures smooth Industry 4.0 applications between machines and from machines to other systems, leading to production efficiency. OPC UA enables plug and work, condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and OEE. OPC UA companion specifications define the form in which the machines provide certain information. This makes configuring and integrating the machines into an existing production environment much easier and enhances operational efficiency.

“Currently we are at Industry 4.0 and moving ahead,” said Manohar. However, data communication must be secure and standardized; and this has to be built into the companion specification of the product.  Whenever data has to be communicated between devices/machines/platforms, certificates are required for encryption as well as identification. So that AAA (access, authentication, authorization) in the cybersecurity world, is built into the product. He explained how data can be captured via layers by giving the example of five robot manufacturers for whom a standard modification is done. Later, if one of the manufacturers has a very specific requirement, OPC UA can create a layer and capture the vendor-specific information.  

Manohar charted the roadmap of the OPC UA into three categories: recent innovations, features in progress, and future vision. OPC Hub India aims to increase awareness of OPC UA technology, contribute to the development of companion specifications, and make standards acceptable in India.

Panel Discussion

Manohar’s views on how the security aspect is addressed: Security plays a very important role in the entire OPC UA framework. It is based on IEC 62541 standards, which has an encryption process within the standard. Security has to be covered across the spectrum of industrial automation (discrete and process engineering). The data right from the sensors to the DCS, MES has to be encrypted and transported, and this is where OPC UA plays a very important role. OPC UA is vendor agnostic with no vendor lock in; it packets the data from all sources, encrypts it and pushes it. There is secure transformation of data across the ecosystem through the OPC framework. Further, he spoke about the different versions of OPC client plugins and web services.