An Electronic Device Description Language based approach for communication with dbms and file system in an industrial automation scenario

• Published in: 2016 IEEE 21st International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA) pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Banerjee, Suprateek, Grossmann, Daniel
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-09-2016
• Subjects: Automation; File systems; Middleware; Production; Servers
• DOI: 10.1109/ETFA.2016.7733682

In industrial production scenarios, there is often a need to access heterogeneous information sources such as production units but also DBMS (Data base management system) and/or a local or shared file system to realize the necessary workflows. EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) provides a standardized way to access and exchange information with the devices that make up the automation system. This paper discusses an approach to use the EDDL approach to describe databases and files, which is to say that in this approach the databases and files both have been modelled as `devices' and can be communicated with like any other device with its own device description. For this to work, EDDL based device descriptions were formulated for databases as well as files and the communication with the same was established with the help of an OPC UA Server, containing nodes corresponding to database entries and files (of a local file system), in its address space. The OPC UA Server used the EDDL based descriptions of the file system and databases to gain connection and access related information about the same, thus establishing the communication. The results of this approach have also been discussed in the following sections, along with a proposal for some enhancements to the EDDL standard.