Deutsches Institut fur Normung e. V.

Combining OPC Unified Architecture and Automation Markup Language
 N SPEC 16592

Annotation

This specification specifies the combination of AML engineering data with OPC Unified Architecture online information such as process data and diagnostic information.

The AML data format, developed by AutomationML e.V. has been standardized in the IEC 62714 series of standards. This format is an XML-based data exchange format which enables the transfer of engineering data for manufacturing systems within a heterogeneous engineering tool landscape.

The OPC Unified Architecture developed by the OPC Foundation is standardised in IEC 62541. It defines platform independent communication mechanisms for online data exchange and generic, extensible, and object-oriented modelling capabilities for the information a system wants to expose.

The combination of AML and OPC Unified Architecture is divided into two parts:

1. Providing an AML model via OPC Unified Architecture; this involves the AML integration into OPC Unified Architecture. The goal is to communicate, exchange, and operationalize AML by means of OPC Unified Architecture. The purpose is to simplify the creation of OPC Unified Architecture information models based on existing AML data. This can be used for re-engineering and maintenance use cases where the AML model evolves over time.

2. Accessing an OPC Unified Architecture server via AML; this involves the integration of OPC Unified Architecture information into AML. The goal is the lossless exchange of OPC Unified Architecture system configuration within AML models to simplify the setup of OPC Unified Architecture client connections to an OPC Unified Architecture server. This reduces the need for manual configuration for discovery and browsing mechanisms. This can be used for the configuration of communication networks based on the description of network configuration and structure (including communication components of sensors and actuators with respect to communication system parameters, network structure and wiring, quality of service, etc.).