The OPC standard

The author is writing this book for students, engineers and researchers in the field of industrial automation on OLE for Process Control (OPC) technology. OPC has revolutionised automation technology by enabling interoperability and secure data exchange between different platforms. According to the OPC Foundation, more than 4,000 suppliers have created more than 35,000 products with OPC technology for more than 15 million applications. The book emphasises the main OPC specifications and their applications. The author describes two case studies with OPC applications: the first application in a pilot plant with Foundation Fieldbus protocol, part of his master’s thesis, and another application for communication solutions for substation automation.