Using the OPC standard for real-time process monitoring and control

In recent years, the use of software engineering tools for the process industry has increased substantially, accelerating research and development work. However, such tools are essentially limited in their connectivity to other systems and applications. It´s therefore challenging to integrate the diverse, components developed using these tools so that they can seamlessly communicate locally and remotely. Accomplishing this integration is nonetheless essential, particularly as process control applications grow larger and more complex. We propose an open, nonproprietary, plug-and-play system (ONPS) for real-time process monitoring and control. Based on the object linking and embedding for process control (OPC) standard, ONPS provides a standard method for individual process monitoring and process control software to interact and share data.