The FDT organization and the OPC Foundation have collaborated on interoperability of existing commercial products to help factories and other industrial facilities achieve interoperability from sensors to the cloud across the enterprise, thereby enhancing lifecycle management throughout the industrial sector.
Since 2011, the FDT organization and the OPC Foundation have collaborated on interoperability of existing commercial (off-the-shelf) products, aiming to help factories and other industrial facilities achieve greater returns on their use of open standards. This collaboration has opened a door to enhanced lifecycle management across the entire industrial sector by enabling interoperability from sensors to the cloud across the enterprise (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: The collaboration between the FDT organization and the OPC Foundation opens a door to achieving interoperability from sensors to the cloud across the enterprise and enhancing lifecycle management throughout the industrial sector. Image source: FDT organization
Establish open standards
To understand the current booming development of FDT and OPC standards and the benefits they can provide in process and factory automation, a brief review of their historical development is necessary.
The FDT standard originated in 1998 and was subsequently incorporated into IEC 62453, ISA 103, and the Chinese standard GB/T 29618. It aims to provide an open, vendor-neutral communication and configuration interface between field devices and host systems. This includes a common environment for accessing the complex functions of devices (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: The FDT standard provides an open, vendor-neutral communication and configuration interface between field devices and the master system, including a common environment for accessing complex device functions.
The standard has two main software components: one is the Framework Application (FDT/Framework) which includes a graphical user interface (GUI); the other is the Device Type Manager (DTM), which acts as a device driver, providing manufacturers with control functions for the displayed attributes of a given device. This framework application can be embedded into programmable logic controller (PLC) programming tools, distributed control systems (DCS), and asset management systems, or used as a standalone configuration tool. The new version, FDT 2.0, supports the latest operating environments and utilizes the Microsoft .NET technology platform.
The OPC standard originated in 1996 and aims to enable secure and reliable data exchange within manufacturing plants and other enterprises. The OPC Unified Architecture (OPCUA) is a platform-independent, service-oriented architecture that integrates the original technical specifications and functions of OPC into a single framework.
The FDT standard aims to be a vital information hub, while the OPCUA standard provides the infrastructure that makes information available to other applications and platforms. Working together, they enable sensor, network, and topology information to be provided to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, the cloud, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Industry 4.0.
Increase interoperability of existing products
The FDT/OPC joint project envisions providing a standard plug-in for the FDT 2.0 standard, enabling it to leverage the OPCUA specification and provide connectivity for enabling data communications across the entire enterprise. This approach fully embodies the device-to-cloud strategy, providing configuration, diagnostics, device health status, communication, historical data access, alarms, and event services for existing and future FDT-enabled devices.
The FDT standard uses both physical and logical network topologies to implement factory layering. Network protocols in industrial environments allow framework applications to communicate with any device. This includes the ability to access end devices through transparent channels across different networks. Throughout its operational lifecycle, the framework application can also receive debugging, diagnostic, predictive, and other high-level data. To make these data sources available to the OPCUA architecture, this data is mapped into the OPCUA data model, and systems supporting FDT/frameworks are configured as OPCUA servers (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Mapping for displaying device type information
Clients can request secure connections to the FDT/OPC server and access topology, health, and other data. There is no limit to the number of client accesses; the limitations are only imposed by server capacity and network bandwidth.
Optimize network and device management
System vendors can use server-assisted equipment for deployment. System vendors who embed framework applications into DCS, PLCs, or other systems have the ability to integrate the OPCUA server into an application, allowing the application to be accessed from any client.
Integrating information provided by the Device Type Manager (DTM) and other device drivers incorporated into the information model is a crucial function for device diagnostics, configuration, remote asset management, and integration with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). The information model aims to improve network functionality and device management, which helps optimize the enterprise by accessing data without having to process protocols. It also provides support for previously unsupported devices.
Networks and devices can be configured using DTMs or other commonly used engineering tools such as Electronic Device Descriptions (EDDs) and Field Device Integration (FDI) packages. Information provided by DTMs, including device type, parameters, and input/output (I/O), helps in building an information model. This collaboration aims to enrich the information model while fully leveraging servers. In automation architectures, servers are ubiquitous, primarily used for transmitting and routing information.
The device communication methods and machine data using industrial equipment information models aim to integrate local control and monitoring with a global view and integration. This is an excellent example of a big data application because it enables better and faster decision-making.
Control network connectivity
The frame application has access to all control networks within the plant facility and to all devices connected to those networks. It also possesses complete knowledge of the control network topology. An OPCUA server within the frame application allows any client application to browse the control structure topology and select any instrument on the network to obtain critical information about that device. The frame application automatically routes across the entire network, bypassing congested segments and connecting directly to clients (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: The OPCUA server within the FDT/Framework application enables any client application to browse the control structure topology and select any instrument on the network to obtain critical information about the device.
Any existing commercial OPCUA client with appropriate security permissions can access the server embedded in the framework application. There are many similar applications. A maintenance technician, with a mobile application installed on an Android or iOS device, can use the mobile device on the factory floor to gain access to critical equipment information. For operators, this is like being able to connect wireless devices directly to assets without any custom code or other applications—all made possible by the convenience of the interface.
"The OPCUA interface specification allows access to device data from higher-level systems (such as asset management systems)."
The independence of future platforms
Auxiliary devices enable sensor-to-cloud and enterprise-wide data communication to achieve what industrial end-users expect—to fully leverage the advantages of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0. FDT aims to go a step further, building IIoT solutions that support mobility, online security, and interoperability, while being deployable independently of the platform on standalone client/server or cloud architectures.
The combination of FDT/OPC standards aims to create a system infrastructure comprised of standardized industrial networks, automated systems, and connected devices. Remote access to connected machines, production units, and equipment helps drive performance improvements. This approach facilitates unified systems engineering implementation and configuration, supports equipment diagnostics for Industry 4.0, and bridges connections to Industry 3.0 networks and devices.
The purpose of this technical collaboration is to ensure seamless online data exchange between automation systems, asset management systems, and other factory and enterprise systems and applications. This design aims to help industrial end-users leverage data and information models, along with modeling and related services, to achieve integration from applications to equipment.
