Integration Guide

Overview

Open

At 3YOURMIND, machine data is collected, standardized and aggregated via the Aggregator. It serves as the central data hub on a workshop and pushes the processed data to the Agile MES (on-prem/cloud). This machine data is then used for production tracking, automation and analytics. In order to integrate your machine to the Agile MES, it needs to support the following use-cases and must be connected via one of the interfaces supported by the Aggregator.

Table of Content

Use-Case Support

The following list gives insights into the supported use cases based on their level of depth and the control mechanisms they enable. The more use-cases your machine’s connectivity interface covers the greater the value for your customers.

List of use-cases: Three Levels of Connectivity

Interface Selection

Different technology stacks are used for machine connectivity interfaces across the industry, ranging from self-developed REST APIs to protocols like MTConnect, which require a standardization of the received data. 3YOURMIND relies on the OPC/UA + umati CS data model to harmonize all machine connectivity data and therefore highly recommend using this connectivity interface as a plug&play solution. Further technical criteria are listed below:

Use-case coverage: Some technologies/interfaces support more of the above use-cases than others. Many vary due to their lack of standardization.

Standardized data: If the technology/interface provides a standardized data representation, the mapping to umati is more consistent and allows plug&play of machines.

Extendable: In order to implement further use cases a technology/interface needs to provide some kind of extendability.

Real-time data: Some technologies/interfaces do not publish data changes automatically which may result in the loss of data between requests.

2-way-operational: Automation requires data to be pulled from a machine but also pushing control instructions or job files to it.

Safety: Most technologies/interfaces come with encryption and multi-layer authentication and authorization processes.

Complexity: A less complex technology may be easier to implement but lacks a lot of functionality needed within an industrial environment.

Integrating via OPC/UA + umati CS

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 (umati CS) defines a common data model suitable for the AM industry.

Benefits

• It is a set of companion specifications for OPC/UA, a well-accepted, performant, and secure protocol that is made for high throughput and polling and pushing mechanisms.

• 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.

Prerequisites

The following requirements must be fulfilled in order to develop an umati server:

1. OPC/UA library and documentation
   
   

   1. Open-source library (C99): https://open62541.org/

      1. Supports generation of data types and information models from XML specification files (used in Step 3)

   2. OPC/UA documentation: https://reference.opcfoundation.org/
      
      

2. Umati companion specifications
   
   

   1. OPC 40001-1 - UA CS Machinery

   2. OPC 40501-1 - UA CS for Machine Tools

   3. OPC 10000-200 - UA Specification Part 200 - Industrial Automation

   4. OPC 10001-13 - UA Specification 1.04.01 Amendment 13 - Ordered List
      
      You can find them either here, at the official OPC/UA webpages, or by contacting info@umati.info.
      
      

3. OPC/UA server modelling (suggested but optional)
   
   

   1. Requires a OPC/UA library that supports generation of data types and information models from XML specification files

   2. OPC/UA Modeler: https://www.unified-automation.com/products/development-tools/uamodeler.html

      1. To model your server and export the node sets as XML
         
         

4. Testing
   
   

   1. Umati Test Server: GitHub - umati/Sample-Server: Sample-Server implementation based on open62541, showcases umati endorsed OPC UA companion specifications. Provides a :whale2: to run locally for development purpose.

   2. Free OPC/UA Client: https://www.unified-automation.com/products/development-tools/uaexpert.html

Basic Server Development

First, the individual nodes for your OPC/UA server must be defined based on the OPC/UA + umati CS. This can be done by either using the umati companion specifications and creating the node sets manually with an OPC/UA library or by modelling them, exporting that model to XML and auto-generating the node definitions in the OPC/UA library.

With the library and the compiled node definitions, an OPC/UA + umati server can be easily created. The server will contain all the relevant node representations available and can now be connected to your machine’s data.

Further resources:

umati homepage, umati GitHub

Integration Approval

The Agile MES currently supports the following OPC/UA + umati CS version v1.0.0 nodes. After you confirm your implementation with an OPC/UA client (e.g. UaExpert) you can provide a test instance of your server for approval to 3YOURMIND (URL + authentication details needed). In that case please reach out to our team via product@3yourmind.com.