OPC UA publishes metaverse concept, real world examples for digital twins in automation

The OPC Foundation has completed and published its Metaverse work. OPC UA shared in a press statement that its board of directors established a working group to ensure it is well-suited for Metaverse use cases after Dr. Holger Kenn of Microsoft discussed the need for a standardized Metaverse solution in October 2022.

In less than one year, the group, chaired by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft, finished its work and published the results. OPC UA  provided standardized solutions to important requirements like information modelling, information exchange, cloud connectivity and asset identification.

With this base being available to the working group the main task was to bring the necessary pieces together to provide solutions for the use cases:

• Remote or on-premises condition monitoring using augmented and virtual reality technology
• Remote assisted maintenance of machinery carried out by local workers with the assistance of remote experts.
• Production processes training in safe, simulated environments for real-world tasks in hazardous environments
• Manufacturing logistics planning and execution using head-up display technology for drivers of transport systems.

The code for those solutions has been open-sourced and published on the OPC Foundation GitHub repositories for the industry to get quick success when establishing their Metaverse concepts and products:

• Condition monitoring sample application built on Unity
  https://github.com/OPCFoundation/UA-CloudMetaverse
• OPC Foundation UA Sample Client application capable of running on HoloLens for remote assisted maintenance
  https://github.com/OPCFoundation/UA-.NETStandard-Samples/blob/master/UA Universal Windows.sln

OPC Foundation’s YouTube channel also provides an instructive recording detailing the standardized solutions for public access.

• Condition monitoring overlayed over the real wind farm assets
  https://youtu.be/87r-RTfM54g