Beckhoff Automation announces integration of OPC UA technology into TwinCAT 3 Scope software

Beckhoff Automation has announced greater integration of OPC UA communication technology into TwinCAT Scope software.

In the context of Industrie 4.0 and big data applications, machine data acquisition via OPC UA and analytics tools are becoming increasingly important. TwinCAT Scope software provides support for integrated data acquisition across heterogeneous system environments. A standardized OPC UA communication channel enables this charting tool to analyze data from diverse sources such as TwinCAT controllers and third-party components.

TwinCAT 3 Scope consists of Scope View for the graphical display of signal curves and Scope Server for the actual data logging. The Scope Server can be installed on a target device for autonomous logging (without the View component if desired) or on the corresponding engineering system together with Scope View for remote logging.

For logging measured signals, the Scope Server now features a TwinCAT-specific ADS channel and also offers support for another standardized communication channel in the form of an OPC UA client. The use of OPC UA in automation technology enables TwinCAT Scope to acquire and display measured data in a vendor-independent way.

The TwinCAT Target Browser ̶ which is used to manage connected data sources in TwinCAT Engineering ̶ has also been expanded with OPC UA support. It enables browsing in the namespaces of connected OPC UA servers. This feature can be used to select the desired variables for logging by the Scope Server with configuration options for certificate-protected access.

A TwinCAT 3 Engineering installation includes a Scope View tool and a local Scope Server. Both software components are included in the basic version, which enables testing of the OPC UA communication. With a set of features including multi-core support, triggers, chart synchronization and numerous zoom functions, the charting tool is now suited for a larger group of users and more diverse application scenarios.