Shopfloor Copilot includes built-in OPC UA software for connecting to any PLC or industrial server, browsing live OPC UA node trees, reading real-time signal values, and mapping signals to OEE components — with no custom middleware or manual coding required.
OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) is the leading open, vendor-neutral industrial communication standard for machine-to-machine (M2M) data exchange. It defines how PLCs, CNC machines, robots, and sensors publish data — and how software systems such as MES, SCADA, and HMI systems read that data.
OPC UA is endorsed by NAMUR, VDMA, ISA, and the OPC Foundation. It is mandatory in Industry 4.0 reference architectures (RAMI 4.0) and is the primary communication layer for digital factory initiatives. Every major PLC vendor — Siemens, Rockwell, Beckhoff, Omron, Mitsubishi — now ships OPC UA server functionality.
Navigate the full OPC UA server address space. Expand nodes by namespace. Browse Objects, Variables, Methods, and DataTypes interactively.
Read real-time values from any OPC UA node. Add nodes to a persistent watchlist. Monitor signal changes at configurable polling intervals.
Map OPC UA nodes to OEE signal types via YAML configuration. No programming required. A type: availability_loss signal becomes a tracked downtime event automatically.
Connect to multiple OPC UA servers simultaneously. Supports anonymous, username/password, and certificate-based authentication.
Drag-and-drop production line editor with direct station-to-OPC-UA-node assignment. Map physical stations to their corresponding OPC UA endpoints visually.
30+ manufacturing KPIs computed from OPC UA signal streams using the AST-based formula parser. Availability Rate, MTBF, MTTR, Throughput — live.
Shopfloor Copilot connects to any device that exposes an OPC UA server endpoint, including:
The most powerful feature of Shopfloor Copilot's OPC UA integration is the Semantic Signal Engine. Rather than writing custom code per machine type, engineers define signal mappings in a YAML file:
type: availability_losstype: quality_good_counttype: performance_cycle_timeThe engine reads these mappings, subscribes to the OPC UA nodes, and automatically populates the OEE dashboard — with no additional middleware, no custom SQL, and no manual data entry.
Shopfloor Copilot's OPC UA client supports all standard OPC UA security profiles:
OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) is an open, vendor-neutral industrial communication standard for machine-to-machine data exchange. It is the primary standard used to connect PLCs, CNC machines, robots, and sensors to manufacturing software such as MES and SCADA systems. OPC UA supports secure, platform-independent data exchange and is endorsed by NAMUR, VDMA, and the OPC Foundation.
Any OPC UA server-enabled device: Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT, Rockwell ControlLogix, Omron, Mitsubishi iQ, and any PLC with an OPC UA server endpoint. The asyncua Python library handles the client-side OPC UA connection.
Semantic signal mapping associates raw OPC UA node values with manufacturing concepts (run/stop state, reject count, cycle count) and OEE loss categories. In Shopfloor Copilot, this mapping is defined in a YAML file — no programming required. A signal with type: availability_loss is automatically counted as unplanned downtime in the OEE calculation.
Explore the prototype's live OPC UA node browsing, real-time signal reading, and automatic OEE dashboard population — using a simulated OPC UA server with 93 stations across 4 production lines.
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