Onsite Testing at Swiss Smart Factory
One of the use cases in the Modul4R project features NxtControl (NXT) demonstrating software- defined automation using the IEC61499 standard together with the hardware from Schneider Electric. This is showcased in the Swiss Smart Factory (SSF) demonstrator. This demonstrator is a THT-Soldering machine, consisting of four different stations: Logistics, Pick and Place, Quality Inspection and Soldering. Every station is controlled by its own hardware, the synchronization between these stations is managed by a Schneider Electric Industrial PC, hence involving the IEC61499 standard in this use case.
The onsite visit was used for testing the communication between the devices, where NXT and SSF were involved. There are two different types of connections that require testing: the connection to the OT- layer and the connection to the IT-Layer. The following image visualizes this need based on the architecture that was developed during the MODUL4R project, which ensures a flexible way of connecting for instance to different devices or clouds.
Industrial PC <> Stations (OT Layer): Transferring sensor and actor data to the Industrial PC and commands from the IPC to the stations. This data is exchanged via OPC UA and TCP/IP, depending on the available protocols of the hardware.
Industrial PC <> Cloud (IT Layer): The Industrial PC forwards the data gathered from the station to the Cloud. MQTT is used to execute this task.
In between these layers sits the Edge Gateway layer, where the IEC61499 source code of the Industrial PC is located.
The connection to all the stations and to the Cloud has successfully been established during the onsite testing session. The next step in this use case is the synchronization of the mentioned stations. For this, the IEC61499 source code that will be running on the Industrial PC from schneider Electric has to be developed.
