OPC UA based Universal Edge Gateway for Legacy Equipment

The objective of this study was to propose universal edge gateway that can transfer information of various legacy equipment conveniently and cost effectively to IT system for smart factory. The proposed universal edge gateway converts information from various legacy equipment used at the manufacturing site to OPC UA protocol. Also, ISA 95 information model was applied to realize the same equipment interface for all IT systems, including MES and ERP. It also includes hardware that can connect additional sensors, required for legacy equipment and configuration tools that allow operators to use simple gateways without modifying the equipment. As a result, in IT systems, it is possible to access the information of legacy equipment easily with the same interface, and to reduce the cost and time for building smart factory.