CODEWITHSUNDEEP
restopc-ua
MKalio
MKalio

Reputation: 5

Does OPC UA allow us to execute tasks in PLCs?

I am quite new to OPC UA. Regarding my studies, OPC UA is an adopted standard by the industry that makes the connectivity of devices and fetches data from the shop floor (i.e server side) and delivers data to the client side for further processes such as monitoring. For the project that I am involved, The I/Os of Siemens PLC are directly connected to the REST interface controller. Now, I'd like to know if it is possible to employ OPC UA to send commands to REST interface for triggering corresponding I/Os and execute workstation operations.For instance, can we trigger an actuator from client side using OPC UA? I was wondering if OPC UA is capable of implementing such an approach? Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1296

Answers (2)

kahveci
kahveci

Reputation: 1467

First of all, OPC UA is an industrial M2M communication protocol. It is not a tool or software application. In this regard, asking "if it is possible to employ OPC UA to send commands to REST interface" does not make any sense.

The capability in your question is not about the protocol. It is more about the hardware and the software you have. Does your PLC support OPCUA protocol? If so, yes you can subscribe, read and write I/O of the PLC via OPCUA.

In terms of REST interface, OPCUA "as a protocol" has nothing to do with REST interface. But, you can always write a simple application to collect data from an OPCUA Server by using one of popular OPCUA Client SDKs, and make RESTful API calls. Alternatively, you may install a connectivity platform (e.g. KepServerEX) and use its gateway features.

Upvotes: 0

Andrew Cullen
Andrew Cullen

Reputation: 868

The Siemens 1200 and 1500 PLCs have system code that implements an OPC UA server. From an application that has an OPC UA client library, you can connect, browse, read, write and subscribe to the nodes that represent the I/O of the PLC.

There are OPC UA client libraries from many vendors, for many languages.

I would like to learn more of the REST api that you mention. Is there a link to the product?

To answer your question. Yes, an OPC UA Client can trigger an actuator connected to a S7-1200 or S7-1500 PLC, but, it doesn't use a REST Api to do it.

Upvotes: 1

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