PLCaaS: PLC as a Service

The overall goal of the OPEN community project PLCaaS is to research and develop a multi-stage system for the automated instantiation of control code and controllers based on easy accessible system descriptions. This makes it possible to prepare reliable and risk-aware proposals as early as the initial proposal phase in the mechanical and plant engineering sectors.

The focus is on generating control code from skill descriptions and asset administration shells (ASS) of automation components used in comissioning. In addition, research is being conducted on the automated instantiation of virtual PLCs (vPLCs), which can be used in both real-world and virtual scenarios. Furthermore, the system includes the generation of executable simulations, including the necessary network infrastructure.

One goal is to establish a tool-supported process based on standardized, skill-based functions. This approach significantly reduces the need for specialized knowledge during the bidding and implementation phases. As a result, efficiency is improved during both the bidding process and the implementation phase in mechanical engineering.

As part of the project, inIT is investigating the automated and AI-driven generation of IEC 61131-3 control code and the required OPC UA FX communication instances based on asset administration shells and the information aggregated within them. The project analyzes which data is required for the generation of control code and the corresponding OPC UA information models.

In addition, a prototype toolchain as well as a generator-concept are being developed. This automatically generates executable control code from existing system descriptions contained in the corresponding asset administration shells. This code implements the described system behavior including the necessary communication connections using a skill-based approach. To this end, research is being conducted to determine how OPC UA FX based communication can be seamlessly implemented for both controllers in OT environments on the shop floor and controllers in virtual (IT) environments (vPLCs) for simulation purposes. This results in a system that provides standardized, PLCopen-compliant control code as well as interoperable, preconfigured OPC UA FX communication modules and instances for communication in both IT and OT environments using a novel interface-based and generative approach.

The project consortium consists of the OPEN Community partners Emerson – Afag GmbH, geminiware GmbH, Siemens AG, and TH OWL / inIT.