Evaluation of OPC-UA communication in an autonomous advanced manufacturing cell implementation

The recent development of advanced manufacturing concepts brings new challenges for developing countries in order to prepare their workforce and industries for local and global markets. To explore and disseminate advanced manufacturing concepts, the first autonomous advanced manufacturing cell developed in Brazil as a result of a partnership between global and local companies and academia was designed and evaluated. This paper aims to describe the advanced manufacturing cell, the equipment composing the infrastructure, and the network topology and equipment that could deal with the heterogeneity of equipment and protocol. Moreover, the behavior of the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) communication framework (and related protocols) as the integration element between the equipment composing the cell was evaluated. The results indicated that the OPC UA communication framework promotes a low traffic overhead and can also be used to carry data from the traditional protocols in their fields without restrictions that could hinder production. The paper also discusses how the exchange of data occurred between the equipment used in the production and the control systems via the protocol studied. The OPC UA communication framework protocols presented a messaging structure and data transport characteristics that satisfy the integration needs between equipment of several manufacturers that composed an autonomous cell of advanced manufacturing. This paper also presents some key challenges to integrating all equipment not addressed by the OPC UA reference model.