OPC UA based IEC 61499 Device Configuration Interface

In the modern era of industrial automation, the term Industry 4.0 is defined as the fourth industrial revolution. This is a phenomenon where technologies from various layers of an enterprise are interconnected and form a meshed network of self-regulated, adaptive, re-configurable and self-optimizing devices. These devices vary from Programmable Logic Controller, embedded PCs, edge nodes, smart sensors, and actuators, working as proxies or mediators for a real object in the software domain integrating into Intelligent Enterprise Applications. Heterogeneous configuration interfaces of these devices hinder smooth integration and configuration process. A unified way of interacting with the devices for configuration is well-defined in the IEC 61499 standard. The standard defines the commands, interaction behavior, and interface description for the control devices and engineering tools. There are implementations of the configuration interface in XML and Binary XML, which are widely used for their flexible, extensible, and human-readable nature. Whereas the OPC UA can offer an open configuration interface for the IEC 61499 devices and software tools, with built-in interoperability solutions. This paper introduces the concept of a new configuration interface for the IEC 61499 devices using OPC UA information modeling concepts.