Definition and Implementation of Features for Data Modelling in a Ceramic Plant

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the potential uses of the industrial highlevel communication standard OPC Unified Architecture and the level of integration of this standard in automation software. The OPC UA Standard is of great significance in the advent of Industry 4.0 and for the need of the manufacturing industry to exchange and process data, as well as to link machines and products. This makes the topic highly relevant and full of aspects to be explored and examined. This thesis will focus on the increasing issue of legacy machines that do not use OPC UA as a protocol and what it could be a solution. Additionally, the most recent extension of the OPC UA Standard, which is the first attempt to move forward the implementation of a real-time communication system with the OPC UA PubSub, will be discussed. This dissertation follows a similar approach in its chapters as was taken during the work of the thesis. Initially, a theoretical understanding of the protocol standard is provided, followed by a more practical approach and the execution of projects to obtain a result.