10 Mar VDMA OPC UA Mining Initiative

Description and scope:

This joint working group is developing an OPC UA information model for the communication of mining machinery and equipment.

“The OPC UA Companion Specification Mining includes a basic description of the mining machineries and equipment. Main scope is to support machine-to-machine communication in the different processes in mining and vertically into higher level mine operation systems for control, information and diagnostic purposes. The basic description of mining machinery and equipment is supplemented by selected use cases, e.g. longwall conveying, mobile mining machineries and mine operations” (source: https://opcfoundation.org/markets-collaboration/mining/).

How this initiative can be used to enable interoperability in mining:

OPC UA is a standardized interoperability architecture that is widely used in industrial settings. This group will create a vendor-neutral interface based on OPC UA so that mining machinery and equipment can communicate.

Accessibility model:

Ongoing work is only available to members of the joint working group. Once released, the accessibility model is open.

Timeline:

Current timeline is for release in February 2021.

See also: This is a partnership between VDMA and the OPC Foundation. They are also partnered with IREDES to integrate their content.