On the Edge of Industrial IoT

Opto 22's history as a developer and supplier of industrial controls and I/O has placed it at the center of numerous and varied industry applications over the years. In 2013, the launch of光电子22 groov框clearly positioned the company for developing industrial technology trends—such as mobile human-machine interface (HMI) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications at the edge of the network.

Over the past few years, a “clear gravitation toward taking intelligence to the edge has developed,” said Benson Hougland, vice president at Opto 22. He pointed out that this is a trend not just for IT, but for OT (operations technology) too.

The move toward industrial edge computing “falls into what plant floor operators have been asking for,” Hougland said. “They don't want to have to send everything to the cloud or deal with IT just to collect and analyze data to improve operations. Edge computing is all about putting this capability into the hands of OT. It allows OT to participate in IIoT.”

霍格兰（Hougland）解释说，这是Opto 22的Groov等工具进来的地方。“它提供了更简单的功能，可以参与IIOT，而不必深入了解IT网络和数据库，”他说。

Opto 22最近参与了EdgeX Foundry作为该组织的50个创始成员之一。Linux Foundation开源项目Edgex的目标是为物联网边缘计算建立一个共同的开放式框架 - 与工业互联网财团（IIC）（IIC）及其IoT Solutions World Congress的目标相吻合，Opto 22举办了Opto 22它的最新展览。

IIC通过其数百个供应商和最终用户成员，致力于创建一个框架和体系结构，以帮助对齐技术供应商的开发工作，并指导最终用户对物联网技术部署的标准化流程。同样，Edgex Foundry是一家技术公司的社区，围绕提供插件组件的想法（从连接的设备和应用程序到传感器和服务）可以合并以创建安全，可扩展的物联网系统。

“EdgeX is helping to facilitate this move toward industrial edge computing,” Hougland said. “Their ideas around an open source framework for this are on point. That’s why we’re involved. Just as we were a founding member of OPC, we see EdgeX being in the right place at the right time too.”

荷格兰德澄清说,他不指望EdgeX to replace OPC, saying that it’s “another approach that helps overcome some limitations of OPC.”

Because the EdgeX platform is designed to run on edge computing devices such as programmable automation controllers (PACs) and mobile HMIs—two core areas of focus for Opto 22—it’s easy to understand Opto 22’s interest in being part of the organization. Another EdgeX Foundry founding member, Dell, has contributed its Project FUSE source code under Apache 2.0 to seed the EdgeX Foundry project. Opto 22’s support of EdgeX is currently being showcased through the use of Dell Edge gateways.

鉴于工业设备不会说IT计算机的语言，因此将这些设备连接到IIT应用程序需要额外的步骤。Dell和Opto 22之间的合作伙伴关系是一个很好的例子，说明如何通过使用Opto 22的SNAP I/O，SNAP PACS和GROOV来转换Dell Edge Gateway的集合，分析和传输的工业数据，如何促进此额外步骤。

The inherent disconnect between IT and OT technologies is why partnerships are important to the development of industrial edge platforms. “Ultimately, it’s all about that last inch of connectivity to the plant floor devices—whether that device is a PLC, sensor or gateway,” said Hougland. “From our partnerships with IBM Watson to Amazon Web Services to Dell, the common theme is they all need access to the plant floor data—which is where we come in. That’s why the current focus of EdgeX is all about the drivers needed to deliver OT data. Because EdgeX uses a RESTful interface for southbound communications (i.e., those headed toward automation/field level devices), that works perfectly with our PACs.”

Just ahead of the IoT Solutions World Congress, Opto 22 was part of anotheredge computing-related announcementat Inductive Automation’s Ignition Community Conference. This announcement spotlighted the upcoming availability of Ignition Edge Onboard on the groov box to give users a way to connect legacy devices that lack MQTT support to an MQTT message broker for IIoT applications.