VDMA OPC Machine Vision initiative: Making Machine Vision ready for Industry 4.0
Published on : Tuesday 30-11--0001
Frankfurt, August 28, 2019 – The OPC UA Companion Specification for Machine Vision (short: OPC Machine Vision) aims at straightforward integration of a machine vision system into production control and IT systems. The scope is not only to complement or substitute existing interfaces between a machine vision system and its process environment by OPC UA, but also to create non-existent horizontal and vertical integration abilities to communicate relevant data to other authorised process participants, e.g., up to the IT enterprise level. To this end, the OPC UA Machine Vision interface allows for the exchange of information between a machine vision system and another machine vision system, a station PLC, a line controller, or any other software system in areas like MES, SCADA, ERP or data analytics systems. The main use cases in OPC Machine Vision, Part 1 are to control a machine vision system and to handle configuration, recipe and result data.
“Wouldn’t it be great, if machines could communicate in a direct way with each other? This idea is at the core of the Industry 4.0 movement to create the smart factory of the future. The goal of reaching ‘interoperability’ is the new core competence that must distinguish our future products in a connected world of Industrial IoT – but even more, the acting people and organisations involved. As chairman of the VDMA OPC Machine Vision Initiative and its working group, I am proud that Machine Vision plays a pioneering role and as one of the first VDMA divisions, is presenting the release of an OPC UA Companion Specification to the public, thanks to the extraordinary commitment and cooperation by the core working group members who worked very hard and made it possible,” says Dr Horst Heinol-Heikkinen, Managing Director of ASENTICS and board member of VDMA Robotics and Automation and VDMA Machine Vision.
Stefan Hoppe, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation commented: "The OPC Foundation truly appreciates the results of the VDMA OPC Machine Vision initiative. The initiative has taken a decisive step forward into the Industrie 4.0 era that is second to none. Beyond the work done to adopt OPC UA as the interoperability platform for Machine Vision, we applaud the joint working group for embracing the spirit of inter-organisational collaboration on a global scale with G3. This ‘big thinking’ aligns well with a key OPC Foundation focus on encouraging organisations to work together to reduce the vast number of overlapping ‘custom’ information models into a harmonised set of OPC UA Companion Specifications. This will benefit end-users and vendors around the world by lowering the barriers in the way of true interoperability.”
The full press release, charts and further information for downloading the Companion Specifications can be found at: https://ibv.vdma.org/viewer/-/v2article/render/40206082
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