Automatic Integration of Simulated Systems into OPC UA Networks

This paper demonstrates the integration of OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) communication capabilities in a simulation framework.The proposed approach is based on a data mapping from the simulation’s meta data model to the OPC UA information model and a concurrent architecture based on message passing between the OPC UA server and the simulation software.The data mapping utilizes the simulation’s and OPC UA’s reflection mechanisms to automatically generate OPC UA address spaces from simulation models. The inverse mapping is used to automatically generate simulation model structure from queries to an existing OPC UA server. The concurrent architecture enables large numbers of simulated objects to be equipped with individual and independent OPC UA servers and clients. This allows the simulation of entire scenarios with simulated objects communicating with each other and with external software. The usefulness extends to distributed simulation use cases, where models populate individual instances of the simulation software and communicate over a real network.The implementation is applied to simulate an automotive production line, where multiple machines are equipped with individual OPC UA servers and communicate with 3rd party software. Stress tests show, that the implementation can handle significant network load.