Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
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at www.sciencedirect.com
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Available
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at www.sciencedirect.com
online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Procedia
Procedia Manufacturing
Manufacturing 00 (2019)
42 (2020) 000–000
327–332
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing (ISM 2019)
International
International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing (ISM 2019)
International Conference
Conference on
on Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 and
and Smart
Smart Manufacturing
Manufacturing (ISM
Smart Manufacturing Retrofit for Brownfield Systems (ISM 2019)
2019)
Smart
Smart Manufacturing Retrofit for Brownfield Systems
Smart Manufacturing
Manufacturing Retrofit
Retrofit
Dieter Etza,b,∗, Hannes
for
Brantnerfor
a Brownfield
Brownfield
, Wolfgang
Systems
KastnerSystems
a
a,b,∗ aa aa
Dieter
Dieter Etz
Etz a,b,∗
a Automation ,, Hannes
Hannes
Systems
a,b,∗
Brantner
Brantner
Group, TU , Wolfgang
3, 1040 Wien,Kastner
a , Wolfgang
Wien, Treitlstraße Kastner
Austria a
Dieter Etz
b Austrian
a
, Hannes Brantner , Wolfgang Kastner
Center of Digital Production, Seestadtstraße 27, 1220 Wien, Austria
a Automation Systems
Systems Group,
Group, TU
TU Wien,
Wien, Treitlstraße
Treitlstraße 3,
3, 1040
1040 Wien,
Wien, Austria
a Automation
b Austrian
Automation Systems Group, TU Wien,Seestadtstraße
Treitlstraße 3,27,
1040
Austria
Wien, Austria
b Austrian Center of
of Digital Production, Seestadtstraße 27, 1220 Wien,
Digital Production, 1220 Wien, Austria
b Austrian Center Austria
Center of Digital Production, Seestadtstraße 27, 1220 Wien, Austria

Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
In recent years, the concept of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing have caused disruption and upheaval in many industries. These concepts
Abstract
promise
In high efficiency and flexibility but also require seamless communication and interoperability among machines. Brownfield systems, that
In recent
recent years,
years, the
the concept
concept ofof Industry
Industry 4.0 4.0 and
and smart
smart manufacturing
manufacturing have have caused
caused disruption
disruption andand upheaval
upheaval inin many
many industries.
industries. These
These concepts
concepts
do recent
In not satisfy
promise these
years, the requirements,
concept needbut
of Industry a 4.0
functional extension
andrequire
smart or communication
enhancement
manufacturing in and
have caused order to remain
disruption andcompetitive.
upheaval inThis
manypaper proposes
industries. asystems,
solution
These for
concepts
promise high efficiency and flexibility but also require seamless communication and interoperability among machines. Brownfield systems, that
high efficiency and flexibility also seamless interoperability among machines. Brownfield that
retrofitting
promise
do a brownfield
high efficiency system
and on the but
flexibility example of an industrial
also require seamlessrobot. An architecture
communication for remain
a gateway device
and interoperability amongismachines.
presented,Brownfield
which enables a legacy
systems, that
do not
not satisfy
satisfy these
these requirements,
requirements, needneed aa functional
functional extension
extension or or enhancement
enhancement in in order
order toto remain competitive.
competitive. This
This paper
paper proposes
proposes aa solution
solution for
for
robot
do nottosatisfy
communicate
retrofitting within a smart
these requirements, needmanufacturing environment.
a functionalanextension A concrete
or enhancement implementation
in order to remain shows, that the presented
competitive. This paperapproach
proposescan be usedfor
a solution to
retrofitting aa brownfield
brownfield system
system on on the
the example
example of of an industrial
industrial robot.
robot. An
An architecture
architecture for
for aa gateway
gateway device
device is
is presented,
presented, which
which enables
enables aa legacy
legacy
upgrade
robot machinery
retrofitting with
a brownfield comparatively
system little effort.
on themanufacturing
example of anenvironment.
industrial robot. An architecture for a gateway device is presented
presented,approach
which enables aused
legacy
robot to communicate within a smart manufacturing environment. A concrete implementation shows, that the presented approach can be used to
to communicate within a smart A concrete implementation shows, that the can be to
robot
upgradeto communicate within a smart manufacturing environment. A concrete implementation shows, that the presented approach can be used to
upgrade machinery
machinery with
with comparatively
comparatively little
little effort.
effort.
upgrade
c 2020 Themachinery
Authors.with comparatively
Published little B.V.
by Elsevier effort.
©
c 2020
This is an
2020 The
TheopenAuthors. Published
accessPublished
Authors. article under
by by
the Elsevier
CC BY-NC-ND
Elsevier B.V. B.V. license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
c 2020
This Theopen
isan
an Authors.
accessPublished
article by Elsevier
under B.V.BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
the BY-NC-ND
CC
Peer-review
c 2020
This is The under
open responsibility
Authors.
access Published
article of
by
under the scientific
Elsevier
the CC B.V. committee of the
license International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open
Peer-review access
under article underof
responsibility thethe
CCscientific
BY-NC-ND license
committee (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
of International
the International Conference on Industry
This is an open
Peer-review
Peer-review
access
under
under
article under
responsibility
responsibility of
the scientific
of the CC BY-NC-ND
scientific
license
committee
committee of the
of the International Conference
Conference on Industry 4.0 and4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) and Manufacturing.
Smart Smart Manufacturing.
Keywords: retrofit on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
Peer-reviewIndustry 4.0; smart manufacturing; cyber-physical systems; robotics;
under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International brownfield;
Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
Keywords: Industry
Keywords: Industry 4.0;
4.0; smart
smart manufacturing;
manufacturing; cyber-physical
cyber-physical systems;
systems; robotics;
robotics; brownfield;
brownfield; retrofit
retrofit
Keywords: Industry 4.0; smart manufacturing; cyber-physical systems; robotics; brownfield; retrofit

1. Introduction
1.
1. Introduction
Introduction
1. In
Introduction
recent years, the fourth industrial revolution has caused
disruption
In recentand
In recent upheaval
years,
years, the in many
the fourth
fourth industries.
industrial
industrial Transition
revolution
revolution has periods
has caused
caused
In recentand
throughout
disruption years,
industrialtherevolutions
upheaval fourth
in industrial
many are revolution
always
industries. awkward
Transitionhasascaused
com-
periods
disruption and upheaval in many industries. Transition periods
disruption
panies
throughoutget and upheaval
disrupted andinsocieties
many industries.
struggle Transition
to adapt periods
to large
throughout industrial revolutions are always awkward as com-
industrial revolutions are always awkward as com-
throughout
scale, industrial
behavioralrevolutions arestruggle
always awkward as com-
panies rapid
panies get
get disrupted
disrupted change,
and
and and
societies
societies new
struggle toolsto [1].
to adapt
adaptSeveral
to
to largein-
large
panies
dustries
scale, get
aredisrupted
currently and societies
confronted struggle
with the to [1].
adapt
abstract to large
concepts
scale, rapid behavioral change, and new tools [1]. Several in-
rapid behavioral change, and new tools Several in-
scale,
about rapid behavioral change,
whichand new tools [1]. Several in- Fig. 1. Administration Shell
dustriesIndustry
dustries are 4.0 (I4.0),
are currently
currently confronted
confronted promise
with
with the thehigh efficiency
abstract
abstract concepts
conceptsand
dustries
flexibility.are
about IndustryAn currently
essential
Industry 4.0 confronted
4.0 (I4.0),prerequisite
(I4.0), which with
for
which promise the
these
promise high abstract
concepts
high efficiencyconcepts
is
efficiency and the
and Fig.
Fig. 1.
1. Administration
Administration Shell
Shell
about Fig. 1. Administration Shell
about
seamless Industry 4.0 (I4.0),and which promise highconcepts
efficiency and
flexibility.communication
flexibility. An
An essential interoperability
essential prerequisite
prerequisite for theseamong
for these machines.
concepts is
is the
the munication and becomes increasingly established in the indus-
flexibility.
Since
seamless An the
2015 essential prerequisite
”Plattform
communication and Industrie for4.0”
interoperability these
[2] concepts
and
among some isother
machines. the
seamless communication and interoperability among machines. try to serveand
munication as abecomes
uniformincreasingly
and vendor-neutral
establishedcommunication
in
seamless
institutions
Since communication
Since 2015 have
2015 the been
the ”Plattform
and
putting interoperability
efforts
”Plattform Industrie in
Industrie 4.0”this
4.0” [2]
among
direction.
[2] and
machines.
and some For
some otherthat
other munication and becomes increasingly established in the
the indus-
indus-
munication
platform
try [5].and becomes increasingly established in the indus-
Sincethe
purpose
institutions
institutions
2015term
have
have
thebeen
”Plattform
“I4.0
been putting
putting
Industrie
Component”
effortswas
efforts in4.0” [2]
introduced,
in this
this
and some
direction.
direction.
other
describing
For
For that
that try to
to serve
serve as
as aa uniform
uniform and and vendor-neutral
vendor-neutral communication
communication
institutions have been putting efforts in this direction. For that try to
platform serve
In the [5]. as a uniform and vendor-neutral
last decades, companies in various industrial sectors,communication
the relation
purpose the between
term an
“I4.0 asset and
Component” its representation
was introduced,
purpose the term “I4.0 Component” was introduced, describing in the infor-
describing platform [5].
platform
haveIn [5].
invested large amounts of money in production equipment
purpose
mation
the the
world
the relation
relation
term
between
between
“I4.0
[3]. Thean Component”
aninformational
asset
asset and
and its
was introduced,
representationin
its representation
representation
describing
follows
in the
the infor-the
infor- In the last
the last decades,
decades, companies
companies in
in various
various industrial
industrial sectors,
sectors,
In the
which is last decades,
not capable companies
of Industrie in4.0various industrial sectors,
the relation
aspects
mation between
described
mation world
world [3]. in an
[3]. The
The theasset
layerand itsof
axis
informational
informational
representation
the Reference
representation
representation
in the infor-
Architec-
follows
follows the
the
have
have invested
invested large
large amounts
amounts of
of money
money incommunication.
in production There-
production equipment
equipment
have
fore,
which invested
there is a large
need amounts
for of money
retrofitting of incommunication.
such production
production equipment
facilities,
mation
ture
aspects world
Model for[3].
described The
Industrie
in informational
the 4.0
layer(RAMI
axis ofrepresentation
4.0)
the [4]. follows
Furthermore,
Reference
aspects described in the layer axis of the Reference Architec- Architec- the
an which is not capable of Industrie 4.0 communication. There-
is not capable of Industrie 4.0 There-
which
also is not aacapable ofretrofitting
Industrie 4.0notcommunication. There-
aspects described
”Administration
ture in thehas
Shell” layer axis
been of4.0)
the which
defined, Reference
ture Model for Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) [4]. Furthermore, an
Model for Industrie 4.0 (RAMI [4]. Architec-
integrates
Furthermore, any
an fore,called
fore, there
there is brownfield
is need forsystem,
need for as it of
retrofitting is
of suchpossible
such or simply
production
production un-
facilities,
facilities,
ture Model forcommunication.
Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) [4]. Furthermore, an fore, there is
economical
also called toa replace
need forall
brownfield retrofitting
legacy
system, as it of
machinery.
is suchpossible
not production
The first
or facilities,
step in this
simply un-
asset into I4.0
”Administration
”Administration Shell”
Shell” has
has been Figure
been 1 illustrates
defined,
defined, which this concept.
which integrates
integrates any
any also called brownfield system, as it is not possible or simply un-
”Administration Shell”Open
has been defined, which integrates any also called
digital
economical brownfield
transformation
to replace system,
process
all legacy as
is itequipping
is not possible
machinery. The or simply
individual
first step in un-
systems
this
The
asset open
into I4.0standard
communication. Platform
Figure Communications
1 illustrates
asset into I4.0 communication. Figure 1 illustrates this concept. this Unified
concept. economical to replace all legacy machinery. The first step in this
asset into I4.0standard
communication. Figure 1 illustratesfor thisI4.0
concept. economical
with
digitalinterfaces to replace
to
transformation allowall legacyismachinery.
seamless
process equipping The
machine-to-machinefirst step
individual in this
(M2M)
systems
Architecture
The
The open (OPC
open standard UA) fulfills
Open
Open all requirements
Platform
Platform Communications
Communications com-
Unified
Unified digital transformation process is equipping individual systems
The open standard Open Platform Communications Unified digital transformation
communication
with interfaces
interfaces allowprocess
[6].
to seamless is equipping individual systems
machine-to-machine (M2M)
Architecture (OPC
Architecture (OPC UA)UA) fulfills
fulfills all
all requirements
requirements for for I4.0
I4.0 com-
com- with to allow seamless machine-to-machine (M2M)
Architecture (OPC UA) fulfills all requirements for I4.0 com-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel/Fax.: +43-1-58801-18324. withForinterfaces
industrial
communication to allow this
robots,
[6]. seamless
concept machine-to-machine
was already carried(M2M)
out in
communication [6].
communication
2014For by e.g. [6].
Pauker et al., where a prototype OPC UA inter-
E-mail address: dieter.etz@tuwien.ac.at (Dieter Etz).
For industrial robots, this concept was already carried out
industrial robots, this concept was already carried in
∗ Corresponding
∗ Corresponding author. Tel/Fax.: +43-1-58801-18324. out in
∗ Corresponding author. Tel/Fax.: +43-1-58801-18324.
For industrial robots, this concept was already carried out in
E-mail
E-mail address:
author. Tel/Fax.: +43-1-58801-18324.
address: dieter.etz@tuwien.ac.at
dieter.etz@tuwien.ac.at (Dieter
(Dieter Etz).
Etz).
face
2014 was
by developed
e.g. Pauker [7].
et That
al., same
where a year, Ayatollahi
prototype
2014 by e.g. Pauker et al., where a prototype OPC UA inter- OPC developed
UA inter-
E-mail address:
2351-9789 c 2020 Thedieter.etz@tuwien.ac.at
Authors. Published by (Dieter Etz).B.V.
Elsevier 2014
an
faceOPC by UA
was e.g. Pauker
server
developed foreta al.,
[7]. where
numerical
That same acontrol
prototype
year, (NC) OPC UA inter-
machine
Ayatollahi [8].
developed
face was developed [7]. That same year, Ayatollahi developed
2351-9789
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2351-9789 cc©2020
is an open 2020
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articleAuthors.
under Published
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Elsevier
license B.V.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
face wasUA developed [7].a numerical
That samecontrol year, Ayatollahi developed
2351-9789
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under The Authors.
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accessAuthors. Published
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article
of under
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scientific CC B.V.of the International
BY-NC-ND
committee license
an
an OPC
OPC on UA
server
server for
for Smart
a numerical
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Conference Industry 4.0 and control (NC)
Manufacturing. (NC) machine
machine [8].
[8].
2351-9789
This is an  c 2020
open Thearticle
access Authors. Published
under the CC by Elsevier B.V.
BY-NC-ND license an OPC UA server for
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) a numerical control (NC) machine [8].
This is an openunder
Peer-review access responsibility
article under the of
CCthe
BY-NC-ND license
scientific (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
committee of the International Conference onSmart
Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
This is an open
Peer-review access
under article under
responsibility CC BY-NC-ND
of the scientific license
committee (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
of the International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
10.1016/j.promfg.2020.02.085
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing.
328 Dieter Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 327–332
D. Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 2

Much has changed since those first approaches of retrofitting
brownfield systems were made. In the meantime, many
OPC UA companion specifications have been introduced,
which are standardized information models that address ded-
icated industry problems and are defined by specific working
groups. These specifications cover domains such as electrical
substation automation systems, machine vision systems, anal-
yser devices, programmable logic controllers (PLC), CNC sys-
tems, PackML, AutomationML, and robotics.
This paper presents a research project which was conducted
by the Institute of Computer Engineering at TU Wien in order
to design and implement an OPC UA server as a gateway device
for a brownfield system taking an industrial robot as an exam-
ple. Although many robot manufacturers like ABB or KUKA
already provide an OPC UA interface as an integral part of their
products, there are many installed legacy robot systems in the
brownfield. Figure 2 illustrates the number of operational in-
dustrial robots worldwide. When KUKA joined the OPC foun-
dation in 2015, there existed no robot systems equipped with an
OPC UA interface. In that specific year, 1.632.000 operational
industrial robots were installed according to World Robotics
2019.
3,971
3,554
3,152
’000 of units
2.1. M2M Communication Candidates
There are several vendor-neutral technologies available
which are able to serve as a communication platform for smart
manufacturing facilities. The most common standards used to-
day are Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), OPC
UA, OPC Classic, and MTConnect. In [9], Pauker compiled
a comparison table where these technologies are compared in
terms of interoperability, scalability, security, data transport,
modeling, extensibility, conformity, awareness, and dissemina-
tion.
OPC UA and MQTT dominate the interoperability domain
because they can be used in any system. OPC Classic is re-
stricted to Windows and MTConnect is a read-only standard,
meaning that it is only able to deliver collected data from the
shop floor via a RESTful interface. OPC UA and MQTT also
dominate the topic scalability because the technologies sup-
port both simple and complex data structures. MQTT offers the
highest data transmission rate. OPC UA dominates the model-
ing domain as the concept of a node that guarantees extensibil-
ity and the feature to structure large amounts of data. OPC UA
and OPC Classic products are tested by the OPC Foundation to
ensure conformity with the standards. There is no such manda-
tory testing procedure for the other two standards. OPC UA is
the only technology in the comparison that also has standard-
ized security aspects [9, page 27].
The list in Table 1 shows that OPC UA has advantages over

the other technologies in almost all criteria. Only the dissemi-

2,747

2,440
nation in companies has not not been fully given yet. The su-
2,125
periority of OPC UA is the reason why this technology plays a
1,838
major role in standardization efforts as well as in this work.
1,632
1,472
1,332
Table 1. Comparison of M2M technologies
Property OPC UA OPC Classic MTConnect MQTT
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019* 2020* 2021* 2022*
high due to Windows
Interoperability via adapters Pub Sub
*forecast Source: World Robotics 2019 base model only
single speci- shop floor almost
Scalability individual
Fig. 2. Operational stock of industrial robots fication only arbitrary
several HTTPS not in the
Security individual
concepts possible protocol
multiple COM high perfor-
Even if some of these systems were replaced by new robots Data Transport
technologies technology
HTTP
mance
in the coming years, there would still be a significant number of Modeling
complex single speci-
rigid model
arbitrary
models fication structures
approximately 1 million devices, which could be upgraded by Pub Sub agent func-
Extensibility pronounced Pub Sub
an appropriate I4.0-compliant communication interface, such as Discovery tion
OPC UA. These numbers show the demand only in the domain Conformity
multi-stage multi-stage
non-existent
open stan-
tests tests dard
of industrial robots. In other domains, such as machinery, con- has risen in high in primarily in
Awareness IoT
veyor systems, and automation systems, this concept can also recent years Europe USA
clients and decreases for sen-
be applied to bring added value to legacy devices. Dissemination simple due to in the USA sors, simple
servers OPC UA devices

Poor −→ Good

2. Building Blocks for Vendor-Neutral Retrofit

The required prerequisites for flexible machine-to-machine 2.2. Communication Platform: OPC UA
(M2M) communication are seamless communication and in-
teroperability among machines. Therefore, vendor-neutral tech- OPC UA presents a platform-independent service-oriented
nologies play a major role in communication platforms with the architecture for M2M communication. The components of
purpose of enabling unrestricted information exchange. OPC UA include transport mechanisms, information model-
 Dieter Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 327–332
D. Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
ing capabilities, and services. The transport mechanisms sup-
port one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communica-
tion. Information modeling defines rules and building blocks
required to expose managed data with OPC UA. Services allow
clients to interact with the application and information model
on OPC UA servers [10][11].
The base modeling concepts of OPC UA are nodes and ref-
erences between nodes. Nodes can represent instances or types.
Depending on the node class, a node can have different sets of
attributes, which are used to describe the node. A reference is a
connection between two nodes, it cannot contain any attributes
or properties. References are used to expose different semantics
on how the nodes are connected [10].
OPC UA companion specifications allow to map concepts
and technologies to standard models for representation in the
OPC UA domain. The companion specification ’OPC Unified
Architecture for Robotics’ includes a basic description of a
motion device system. The Robotics specification describes an
OPC UA information model which aims to cover all current and
future robotic systems such as industrial robots, mobile robots,
several control units, and peripheral devices.
Furthermore, there are two features which make OPC UA
the technology of choice for smart manufacturing. First, the
real-time extension OPC UA over Time-Sensitive Networking
(TSN) [12]. OPC UA over TSN is considered by industry ex-
perts to be the communication protocol for Industry 4.0 and
the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Second, the OPC UA
companion specification ’Safety over OPC UA’, which explains
the relevant principles of functional safety for communication
with reference to the IEC 61508 series, as well as IEC 61784-3
and others, and specifies a safety communication layer based
on OPC UA.
2.3. Migration Approaches
The industrial engineering is focused on maintaining current
installations and on installing device upgrades only from time
to time. There are two scenarios when migrating to IIoT tech-
nologies. The first scenario is called the ”Brownfield” installa-
tion and deals with legacy equipment and legacy software that
perform discrete functions in isolation. The second scenario
is called the ”Greenfield” installation and indicates a situation
where no preexisting equipment is present. While a ”Green-
field” allows the installation of smart cyber-physical systems, a
”Brownfield” is necessary to migrate the current installation to
be compatible with Industry 4.0 technologies. This migration
can be achieved using three different approaches: rapid mass
migration, slow migration with support for multiple legacy pro-
tocols, and migration via gateways [13].
Using rapid mass migration, the OPC UA compatibility of
all devices is implemented at once. Each device can reference
each other device in this consistent system, which gives an im-
mediate advantage. In the long term, system maintenance will
be simplified as a reduction of proprietary protocols and devices
takes place. This approach is more feasible for smaller indus-
trial companies, where plant complexity is manageable. Also,
329
3
total migration costs must be considered in the decision-making
process.
The most straightforward approach is slow migration with
support for multiple legacy protocols which takes little time,
effort, and costs in the beginning. Every time an old device is
replaced or upgraded, it must provide OPC UA functionality af-
terwards. The disadvantage of using this approach is that many
different protocols are used during the migration period. This
drawback leads to an increasing effort in the configuration of
software in the automation pyramid and increasing operating
costs. This step-by-step approach is more feasible for big in-
dustrial plants but can take more than a decade.
A combination of the two previously presented approaches
is migration via gateways, which makes use of the advantages
of both approaches. Devices called ”OPC UA gateways” con-
vert proprietary protocols and expose their data, by using an
OPC UA server, to the clients. These OPC UA clients will
mostly be applications in the MES and SCADA layer of the
automation pyramid. The communication of the lower levels of
the automation pyramid can take place using proprietary pro-
tocols as before and is not interfered with using this approach.
Legacy devices can be upgraded with OPC UA functionality by
this approach, also rapid migration is possible in this case. This
approach has been followed in this work.
3. Gateway Architecture
The proposed design consists of four components: the robot,
the robot controller, a OPC UA gateway, and the OPC UA
client. Figure 3 illustrates the design by showing the relation-
ships among components.
Fig. 3. Overall Design Overview
The OPC UA gateway is composed of two main elements.
The OPC UA server, which is connected to the OPC UA do-
main, and the system-specific client, which connects to the
manufacturer-specific domain.
3.1. OPC UA Domain
In order to be able to expose information about the sys-
tem, an information model has to be created. Models from the
OPC Foundation, such as the OPC UA standard model and the
OPC UA devices model, serve as basis. For this gateway the
OPC UA for robotics information model has also been included.
Figure 4 illustrates the OPC UA objects with their relationships.
According to the robotics companion specification, three ob-
jects have to be created in the model, the controller, the mo-
tion device, and the safety state. The controller object offers a
330 Dieter Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 327–332
D. Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 4

server, but can also be realized using a dedicated network or

hardware interface.
The client has to support a specified set of commands which
enables the gateway to cover the desired functionality. For the
robotics domain, the following commands have to be imple-
mented as a minimum requirement:

• Controller on/off
• Servo on/off
• Override read/write
• Program select
• Program start/stop/reset

Additionally, handling error conditions of the robot con-

troller as well as the motion system have to be considered. Con-
nection monitoring is an equally important aspect in ensuring
proper operation.

4. Gateway Implementation

The implementation was carried out using the following

hardware components:

• Robot: Mitsubishi Electric RV-2FB-D1-S15

• Robot Controller: Mitsubishi Electric CR750-D
Fig. 4. Information Model Robotics • Gateway: Raspberry Pi 3B

In this paper, both domains, OPC UA and manufacturer-

valid model and manufacturer variable, as well as a Parameter- specific domain, use IEEE 802.3 Ethernet as physical and data
Set component which includes three methods (GetParameter, link layer. The architecture of the gateway is illustrated in Fig-
SetParameter, and SetOverride) as components. The controller ure 5.
object contains the TaskControls folder as a component, which
organizes the dynamically created TaskControls. With the help
of this structure, tasks or programs within the robot controller
can be modeled and with methods such as ResetProgram, Re-
sumeProgram, and StopAtNextCycle, these tasks can be con-
trolled.
Just like the controller object, the motion device object also
offers a valid model and manufacturer variable, as well as a Pa- Fig. 5. Gateway Architecture
rameterSet. The motion device object includes a SpeedOverride
variable, which holds the current override value, and IsMoving For all parts of the software implementation, existing li-
variable, which indicates if the motion device is moving. braries or frameworks were used. The class diagram of the
The SafetyState object offers four folders, which contain ob- implemented gateway is shown in Figure 6. For creating the
jects that abstract safety functions. The four folders are the namespace within the OpcUaServer object, the information
EmergencyStop functions, the ErrorLog functions, the Move- model is imported as XML file.
ToSafeState functions and the ResetError functions folder. Ad-
ditionally, there are objects to stop robot movement, to retrieve
the last critical error, and a function to bring the robot in a safe
position.

3.2. Manufacturer-Specific Domain

On the manufacturer-specific side of the gateway, a client

has to be implemented which connects via the manufacturers
proprietary interface to the end system. This connection can be Fig. 6. Class Diagram
established using the same Ethernet interface as the OPC UA
 Dieter Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 327–332 331
D. Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 5

4.1. OPC UA server framework 4.3. Robot Client

The library python-opcua was used, which is hosted on
https://github.com/FreeOpcUa/python-opcua and dis-
tributed as the package ”opcua” on pip. This library can be used
for the implementation of OPC UA clients and servers. Among
other features, it can start and stop servers, set up clients, and
create/modify nodes of the server’s address space.
The Mitsubishi Electric CR750-D robot controller, used for
this project, offers two different Ethernet-based protocols, a
text-based TCP/IP protocol as well as a binary real-time capable
TCP/IP protocol. For reasons of simplicity, the text-based pro-
tocol was chosen. A list of commands supported by the client
is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Robot Client Commands [14]

Command Function
4.2. OPC UA Namespace CNTL<ON/OFF> Operation enable or disable
TIME Time is read
In order to create a new information model for the gate- SLOTINIT The program resets all slots
way, the tool ”UaModeler” from the company ”Unified Au- PRG<UP/DOWN> The program of the task slot is selected
tomation” was used, which provides graphical design of ad- OVRD The OP override is read
dress space, adding nodes and references and generates code. OVRD= The OP override is changed
The model can be exported as XML file which can be im- PAR The parameter is able to read
ported to the python-opcua framework. The created informa- PAW= The parameter is changed
tion model instantiates the MotionDeviceSystem, an object of STOP The start is stopped
type MotionDeviceSystemType under the node DeviceSet us- CSTOP The program under the start stops at the cycle
ing the HasComponent reference as stated in the OPC UA for STATE The run state is read
Robotics specification. Some types were added and modified MOVSP It moves to the safe position
to better match the real-world system. Also, some static nodes PRGLOAD= The program is loaded into the task slot
were added to some components of the instantiated MotionDe- RUN The program is started
viceSystem like model type and manufacturer name of various RSTALRM The error is reset
parts. The MotionDeviceSystem contains the mandatory Fold- RSTPRG The program resets a specified slot
ers Controllers, MotionDevice, and SafetyStates. The structure SRV<ON/OFF> The servo power supply is turned on and off
of the instantiated controller object is shown in Figure 7. ERRORLOG The error history is read

The controller offers many more commands. The subset

listed in Table 2 was used to show the basic functions. The text-
based TCP/IP interface can be accessed using a standard telnet
client. For this reason, the python module telnetlib was used,
which implements a standard telnet client. The constructor
saves IP address, port, timeout, setup method, test command,
and the encoding to instance variables. Furthermore, a lock is
created to get mutual exclusion when accessing the telnet client.
On top of the telnet client the class RobotControllerClient (cf.
Figure 6) is responsible for sending the right strings to the
robot controller to implement concrete application logic. The
OPC UA server calls the methods of the robot controller client
to implement the abstract model in the address space.

4.4. Connection Sequence

Each request of an OPC UA client triggers a communication

Fig. 7. Information Model Robot Controller
Some additional functionality includes the ability to
start/stop task controls, call safety functions, and getter/setter
methods in the ParameterSet of the controller. The modifica-
tions were necessary because the OPC UA for Robotics speci-
fication is not complete and the first part that was released only
focuses on monitoring, not on the operation.
sequence to the robot controller. This sequence follows a strict
synchronous communication pattern in order to ensure that the
OPC UA client receives the most recent data from the robot
controller. Figure 8 shows a sequence diagram representing the
invocation of the OPC UA method GetParameter by an OPC
UA client. The framework python-opcua maps the requested
method invocation from the OPC UA client to a Python method
of the server class in OpcUaServer (cf. Figure 6) and also builds
the response for the OPC UA client by using the return value of
the corresponding Python method.
332 Dieter Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 327–332
D. Etz et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
Fig. 8. Connection Setup Sequence
4.5. Future Work and Outlook
The created solution implements just the basic features of the
robot controller. Besides, the simple text-based TCP/IP protocol
the Mitsubishi MELFA industrial robot controllers alos offers a
binary protocol with real-time extension and the possibility for
additional interface cards such as PROFINET. These capabili-
ties open up a variety of possible enhancements of the presented
solution. Implementing the binary protocol with real-time ex-
tension would offer an opportunity to control the robot signif-
icantly more responsive. This would also allow for a motion
control directly from the OPC UA gateway. Following this idea,
one can think of a real-time capability of the OPC UA server,
which can be achieved using OPC UA over TSN [15]. A very
important aspect of robotics is functional safety. The controller
supports several commands and interfaces for that purpose. For
a comprehensive integration of a legacy robot into an OPC UA
smart manufacturing environment, the companion specification
”Safety over OPC UA” can be included in the OPC UA gate-
way. However, it should be noted here that, the hardware re-
quirements for the gateway are much higher for safety-relevant
applications. Therefore, further considerations must be made to
replace the ”Raspberry Pi 3B” with an industrial grade hard-
ware platform.
5. Conclusion
Retrofits can be used with comparatively little effort to gain
many advantages of digital technology. Thus, it offers the ideal
entry point to gradually digitizing production and converting to
Industry 4.0. This paper offers a solution on how to design and
implement an OPC UA gateway for a legacy robot system in
order to allow vendor-neutral seamless communication across
machines within a smart manufacturing environment.
After evaluating various candidates for M2M communica-
tion, several migration approaches are discussed. The proposed
architecture is presented by a description of the overall design
and by a brief explanation of the details of the OPC UA server
and the robot client. A detailed explanation of the specific im-
plementation depicts the relevant aspects of the used hardware
and software components. Particularly, the software part ex-
plains in detail the operating principle of the proposed solution
by outlining the functions of the OPC UA server framework,
the OPC UA namespace, and the robot client.
6
Acknowledgment
This work has been partially supported and funded by the
Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) via the “Austrian
Competence Center for Digital Production” (CDP) under the
contract number 854187.
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