Behavioral modeling of manufacturing skills in OPC UA for automated execution by an independent cell controller

Abstract With more OPC UA Companion Specifications emerging there is huge potential for the standardization manufacturing devices and their semantic interoperability. Nevertheless, in automation it currently comes with the disadvantage of machinery having to strictly conform to those standards and neglecting vendor- or machine-specific features. The approach presented in this paper aims to enable automation of diverse machinery in a plug- and produce manner through providing descriptions of the interdependencies of atomic skills using state charts in OPC UA. Thereby, device and cell capabilities can be recognized, executed and necessary state changes derived by an independent cell controller.