The original specification was created by a joint working group of PLCopen and the OPC Foundation and released in 2010. It defines an OPC UA Information Model to represent the IEC 61131-3 architectural models.
It is important that the controller as a main component of automation systems is accessible in the vertical information integration which will be strongly influenced by OPC UA. OPC UA servers which represent their underlying manufacturer specific controllers in a similar IEC 61131-3 based manner provide a substantial advantage for client applications as e.g. visualizations or MES. Controller vendors reduce costs for the development of these OPC UA servers if an OPC UA Information Model for IEC 61131-3 is used.
With the 3rd edition of the IEC 61131-3 standard and some additional wishes from the implementers, an update was needed. The final version 1.01 will have the major changes in Table 26 – Mapping IEC 61131-3 elementary datatypes to OPC UA built in datatypes, which in addition contains a new column with a NodeID for each type , and in Table 39 – Numeric Identifiers for IEC 61131-3 defined nodes.
But before the official release of this minor update we want to make sure that this document fits your needs, meaning we want your comments. For this reason this new specification has been released for comments as Version 1.01.09 until March 30, 2018. The document OPC UA Information Model for IEC 61131-3, as well as the feedback form can be downloaded from our website.
For more information: PLCopen Communication