u-OS is Weidmüller’s open, Linux-based operating system. It allows users to run their own automation apps or those created by third parties. Weidmüller is now adding the Data Hub to the u-OS operating system. The Data Hub, which is fully integrated into the operating system from version 2.2.0, makes it easier to use data transparently between applications.
Openness and standards as a strategy
Linux, Codesys, OPC-UA, container apps – Weidmüller is one of the automation companies that are innovating automation with openness and a focus on standards. 13 such platform manufacturers – all from Germany and Austria – are currently represented in the Smart Automation market overview. They are listed in alphabetical order:
Bosch Rexroth with ctrlX AUTOMATION, FLECS Technologies with FLECS, German Edge Cloud with ONCITE DPS, Hilscher Gesellschaft für Systemautomation with netFIELD, KEB Automation KG with NOA, KEBA AG with Kemro X, Lenze with Lenze NUPANO, Phoenix Contact with PLCnext Technology, SALZ Automation with SALZ Controller, TTTech Digital Solutions with Ubique, TTTech Industrial Automation AG with Nerve, WAGO with WAGO OS and WAGO ctrlX OS, and Weidmüller with u-OS and easyConnect.
What all platforms have in common is their genuine openness. No one claims that their platform should be the only one. Their strength lies in their mutual complementarity and independence. It makes their customers independent of hardware providers, making them more flexible and agile than they have ever been. At the same time, it frees the platform providers themselves from the need to program all functionalities for customers themselves. They can concentrate on their core competencies.
Openness also affects the industry’s most important resource in times of digitalization: data. Every industrial company can now access, use and deploy data from machines, devices and systems for whatever it needs. Weidmüller has now added an important freedom to the openness of its own u-OS platform.
The infographic shows the various ways in which data can be used with the u-OS Data Hub. (Image Weidmüller)
Configuration instead of programming
No matter which programming environment is used to create an app, no matter which hardware data is used by an app: The u-OS Data Hub allows the detailed display of variables and their parameters.
This makes it very easy to connect any apps that run on u-OS. This is because the Data Hub is fully integrated into the operating system u-OS from version 2.2.0 and is therefore available to all users of the platform.
Let’s take the networking of applications via Weidmüller’s PROCON-Connect software as an example of its use.
It provides a wide range of drivers such as the PLCHandler from CODESYS, a Modbus and OPC UA client or access to Allen-Bradley controllers for connected applications.
With the u-OS Data Hub, the variables can now be selected individually and provided as a data point – read-only or read and write. The Data Hub displays the data type of the variable and its value with a time stamp. This enables simple configuration instead of dedicated programming of connections.
In the example of an automation system, an automation engineer wants to transfer data from CODESYS to Node-RED. Native CODESYS provides the data hub with information on fill levels, switches and valves or general events. This allows the automation engineer to see the individual variables listed with all metadata.
He wants to use the information about a switch in Node-RED. Depending on the switch – on or off – the way the system functions is defined. In the Data Hub, the automation engineer links the variables from the CODESYS application to the Node-RED app with just a few clicks.
Simple configuration with existing data not only saves time. Like any avoidance of repeated data entry, it also reduces errors. Using HTTP requests, data from heterogeneous machines can be displayed and networked in the Data Hub – without time-consuming programming. This makes the Data Hub particularly suitable for production processes that are not based on OPC UA.
The Data Hub serves as a data turntable for all apps on u-OS. (Graphic Weidmüller)
The Data Hub complements Weidmüller’s u-software portfolio
As part of Weidmüller’s u-software portfolio, the Data Hub connects applications with each other. The graphic illustrating a user’s digital workspace shows the importance of the u-OS Data Hub at a glance. As a base layer, u-OS on Linux is available for users and partners to tackle any automation tasks or IoT use cases. However, the large box of applications from OT to IT, from different manufacturers and from various source systems, can now be found in the secure framework of the u-OS Data Hub, which securely provides the data from all applications for all applications.