RPC-Based OPC-UA Agent for Legacy PLCs

Seung Yong Lee, Minyoung Sung

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper proposes an agent for OPC unified architecture (UA) that enables UA information service and client functions in legacy programmable logic controllers (PLC). The agent runs on a separate machine connected to the PLC using a dedicated link and maintains shared memory with the PLC. Based on the synchronized variables, the agent provides information models and executes client function blocks on behalf of the PLC. One important design feature is that the agent uses synchronized variables to implement a simplified remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism that conforms to the IEC 61131-3 functional model. This allows standard OPC-UA client functions to be used in existing PLC programs that only support numeric types and do not support strings or complex structures.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2022 IEEE 27th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2022
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781665499965
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event27th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2022 - Stuttgart, Germany
Duration: 6 Sep 20229 Sep 2022

Publication series

NameIEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA
Volume2022-September
ISSN (Print)1946-0740
ISSN (Electronic)1946-0759

Conference

Conference27th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2022
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityStuttgart
Period6/09/229/09/22

Keywords

  • OPC unified architecture
  • agent
  • programmable logic controller
  • remote procedure call

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