OPC-UA Compliant Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System

Abstract

Due to the disjointed nature of device interfaces, communication modes and operating platforms, as well as the need to exchange real-time and semi-real-time data from remote sensor systems and instrumentation, the systems designed with proprietary and closed architectures cannot meet the ever-changing requirements of the control system operations. A computer based automated control system; Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition System (SCADA) requires a computing environment that offers remote access, device connectivity and integration, platform independence and interoperability of applications. The SCADA system developed by NIIT, in the first phase, is a functional single-user application. An approved industrial standard OPC (Openness, Productivity, Collaboration) is implemented to achieve interoperability between different devices and applications. However, the system is confined to a single machine and the data made available by the system is not compatible with other computing platforms. It suffers from inherent problems due to the legacy communication technology used. The project report addresses these problems by providing a distributed architecture to the phase I SCADA system. A new architecture is proposed for the system to be used remotely and on multiple platforms with interoperability between applications as well as devices on a factory floor at distant locations. The proposed architecture allows remote access to the devices, platform independence to the system, and application/device interoperability between different vendors.