Make sure you have read Umati - Introduction before continuing.
A universal machine connectivity interface with standardized semantics is highly needed and requested to enable Industry 4.0. The OPC/UA architecture for machine-to-machine communication together with the umati companion specifications defines a common data model suitable for the AM industry.
Reasons to integrate OPC/UA+umati to AM machines:
It is a companion specification to and based on OPC UA, a well-accepted, performant and secure protocol that is made for high throughput and polling and pushing mechanisms. Other protocols like REST API or MTConnect are only based on polling, which is not well suited for sensor data or events.
Compared to designing an internal API scheme, umati already comes with a ready-to-use scheme. That reduces the time needed for implementing an internal API.
Although OPC UA is documented in an abstract form, there are a lot of libraries that are easy to use. For supporting umati, most of the features offered by OPC UA are not needed.
Umati is still in the early stages, but even if umati does not become the industry standard, the machines will still have a solid API using OPC UA that can be used for connectivity.
It is also possible to support umati in parallel to an existing Machine Connectivity Protocol either in a side-by-side installation or with a driver that converts the existing data interface to umati.
