Development of a Cloud-Based Smart Factory Using OPCUA

With Industry 4.0 advancing, manufacturing requires real-time data acquisition, device connectivity, and cloud-based analytics. However, the diversity of equipment and legacy systems within factories often hinders a seamless transition to intelligent production. To address this, this paper proposes a three-layer cloud factory architecture featuring a platform called OPC UA Fusion. Multiple OPC UA servers share data in real-time, enabling machine-to-machine scheduling and linking to a NoSQL database and the remote OPC UA Fusion Cloud. Two case studies validate the feasibility of the platform. With the help of cloud analytics, the results show improved interoperability and visualisation. Future work includes better OPC Classic support and advanced scheduling to further enhance fully automated intelligent manufacturing capabilities.