PLCs as Industry 4.0 Components in Laboratory Applications

Abstract

This paper focuses in three main subjects; the first one and the most important is the presentations and implementation of a concept to use an standard PLC as an Industry 4.0 (I40) component following the specification defined by the Industry 4.0 architecture RAMI 4.0. With this realization those industrial controllers can be easily integrated in Industry 4.0 production environments using the service paradigm. The next subject of this work involves some tests to evaluate the developed concept based on a prototype implementation. As result, the transmission time for the process data from the PLC to the IP network was determined for two use cases. The last part of the paper presents a practical implementation using a laboratory installation intendent to educational applications. With the PLC as an I40 component, process data can be transferred directly from the controller to an IP network without additional delays. The achieved result forms, amongst other things, the basis for outsourcing parts of the control program to a cloud. The prototype applications are available for learning and training purposes.