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TechWaTch
OPC UA: One Communication Standard for Auto ID
By Olaf Wilmsmeier, Business Development Manager RFID, HARTING
ID devices in 2016. At the last SPC IPC Drives in Nuremberg, it became clear that this standard is being em- braced by many devices manufactur- ers across the entire auto ID spec- trum. Customer demand for OPC UA as the communication standard in the industry is also increasing. In 2014, the AIM System Inte-
I
gration working group — motivated by Siemens and HARTING —defined a new, forward-looking, technology- independent and manufacturer-inde- pendent communication standard for the auto ID industry. Until now, many devices have communicated only through proprietary interfaces. This means there were often various communication standards for various technologies. Regardless of whether the com-
munication took place by barcode or UHF, RFID had an impact on the
n cooperation with the OPC Foun- dation, AIM-D launched a new communication standard for auto
programming of the software inter- face to be connected.
Auto ID a Base for Industry 4.0 Today, containers, PCBs, car
bodies, hospital beds, and much more can all be identified automatically with auto ID technology. This is gen- erally something that happens pas- sively and without maintenance work on the object, making the tech- nology essential in driving automa- tion forward. With UHF RFID, also known as
RAIN RFID, the object itself has a memory. Information, such as the date of manufacturing and the firmware version of a PCB, can be saved directly on the product. There is no need for a power supply, acces- sibility is wireless and updates can be implemented easily. Today, auto ID technology is a
self-explanatory tool for implement- ing an overall solution. The auto ID technology used should be deter-
WEMS Electronics
Serving the military, defense and aerospace industries with custom EMI filters, EMC and RFI filter connectors since 1959
mined by the application and not by the communication interface of the auto ID device. Today, an RFID read- er communicates directly with an ERP system and with a control unit on the production line. These ideas and requirements
were the motivation for AIM to de- fine a communication standard based on OPC UA. OPC UA is one of the standards for implementing state-of-the-art communication ar- chitectures and is also being listed in the RAMI specifications for In- dustry 4.0. OPC UA is already supported by many control units and software systems. Communi- cation with the machine and with the database system in the cloud is easy to implement. OPC UA is the communication standard of the automation industry. OPC UA was highly suited
all solution. OPC UA already offers diverse
integrated security mechanisms and this was also investigated by the Bun- desamt für Sicherheit in der Informa- tionstechnik (BSI) — the German fed- eral office for information security. The BSI confirmed that OPC UA
already offers integral mechanisms for implementing secure data communi- cation. According to the BSI, “OPC UA was developed taking security aspects into account and does not have any
Today, containers, PCBs, car bodies, hospital beds, and much more can all be identi-
fied automatically with auto ID technology....with UHF RFID,
to the development of a common communication standard for the var- ious auto ID technologies. Common- alities, like a scan method for simple detection of an ID, can be defined in higher-level classes. Specific charac- teristics can be implemented in classes derived from these for the in- dividual auto ID technologies. Manu- facturer-specific updates can be per- formed without affecting the basic functionality.
Integrated Security Communication security is an-
other important issue. Isolated com- munication systems are becoming in- creasingly rare in production and lo- gistics also. The vertical and horizon- tal integration of auto ID systems is crucial to be able to develop an over-
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also known as RAIN RFID, the object itself has a memory.
systematic security gaps.” For auto ID systems, this aspect should not be dis- regarded. Ultimately, complete ma- chines and processes work more or less autonomously on the basis of the data communicated by the auto ID system. OPC UA has been integrated in-
to devices by many auto ID manufac- turers. As of 2018, barcode, HF and UHF devices are now available with an OPC UA interface. Standard, se- cure data communication with vari- ous devices from different manufac- turers is now a reality. Of course, auto ID devices con-
tinue to differ depending on the man- ufacturer, with all devices having sufficient differentiation options. On- ly the data exchange is standard across all of them, something that simplifies the integration of auto ID technology. The “inbuilt security,” if used correctly, increases the security of communication, which is acceler- ating the expansion of automation to Industry 4.0. Another important topic is the
integration of sensor data. The RAIN RFID technology, in particular, is in- creasingly being used to transfer sen- sor values. This enables an object to be uniquely identified, additional da- ta to be read out and written and the current status of the object to be queried. Information about whether the drive is too hot, the body is wet or the container is locked can be re- quested. There is often no need even for a battery. These individual tech- nologies continue to merge and clas- sic sensors and auto ID are growing closer together. Contact: HARTING North
America, 1370 Bowes Road, Elgin, IL 60123 % 847-717-9217 E-mail:
christina.chatfield@
harting.com Web:
www.harting.com r
September, 2019
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