Speed up Business 4.0 Adoption utilizing Containerized Gateway Companies

As a part of the Manufacturing sector’s digitization course of, Business 4.0 automation drives real-time, information acquisition from industrial gear on the plant flooring. This information and instant suggestions have turn into a mission-critical requirement. As well as, latest provide chain disruptions have elevated the lead time to acquire edge {hardware} leading to a number of months delays to modernization tasks. Among the most difficult points of the modernization course of contain organising machine connectivity, establishing a number of communication protocols, and buying the proper {hardware} to deploy at scale and throughout industrial websites. This weblog put up explains how one can deploy a number of cases of edge software program on a single machine. On this answer, we deploy one occasion for every atmosphere (improvement and high quality) to keep away from needing to acquire further {hardware} for every atmosphere. The sting software program that we focus on embody AWS IoT SiteWise Edge utilizing AWS IoT Greengrass because the runtime atmosphere and runs in a Docker container. You deploy the software program utilizing the AWS Cloud Growth Equipment (AWS CDK) and the GNU Make utility.

Conditions

1. AWS Accounts_ – Two AWS accounts with default Amazon Digital Non-public Cloud (Amazon VPC) subnet configuration. The accounts must have adequate AWS Identification and Entry Administration (IAM) permissions to launch Amazon EC2 cases, provision IoT Greengrass gadgets, and arrange AWS IoT SiteWise fashions and property. Observe that the Amazon Machine Picture (AMI) we use within the setup is obtainable solely within the Northern Virginia (us-east-1) Area. You will want to repeat the AMI for deployment to different Areas.
2. Set up Docker and Docker Compose in your edge gateway machine to construct and deploy containers.
3. In your native improvement machine,
   1. Set up and configure the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) following the steps offered at Arrange the AWS CLI.
   2. Set up AWS Cloud Growth Equipment (AWS CDK) to provision cloud sources. Seek advice from the AWS CDK Workshop to achieve hands-on expertise utilizing the AWS CDK.
   3. Clone the run-multiple-sitewise-gateways-using-containers pattern repo from GitHub following the steps offered at Cloning a repository.

Answer Walkthrough

For demonstration functions, let’s take into account an automotive manufacturing plant with a stamping manufacturing line comprising of two stamping presses. You ingest real-time measurement information from every stamping press into two AWS environments (named improvement and high quality) utilizing two cases of the sting software program working on the identical edge {hardware}.

First, you simulate temperature and strain measurement values each 1 second utilizing Ignition software program put in on an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) occasion. Subsequent, you create a digital illustration of the 2 stamping presses in AWS IoT SiteWise in each the event and high quality environments.

Lastly, you put together the sting gateway machine and deploy two cases of AWS IoT SiteWise Edge. You take a look at the end-to-end information move from the Stamping Presses to AWS IoT SiteWise in each the event and high quality environments. Beneath is the structure diagram of the answer that we simply described:

Steps

1. Put together your environments

Use two AWS accounts to symbolize the event and high quality environments. You possibly can both use current accounts or create new ones.

Observe: Write down the 12-digit AWS account ID for every account as you have to them within the following steps.

   2. Simulate real-time measurement information for industrial gear

Use the Ignition software program to arrange an OPC Unified Structure (OPC UA) simulator server. Set up the software program on an Amazon EC2 occasion, and configure pattern tags to simulate temperature and strain information for the stamping presses.

   2.1 Select your goal atmosphere

Choose the atmosphere the place you’ll deploy your cloud sources. First, you select the AWS account that represents your improvement atmosphere.

Once you return to this part for deploying the answer a second time on the standard atmosphere, choose the AWS account that represents your high quality atmosphere.

To decide on the goal atmosphere, replace the account and area parameters within the iot-factory-cdk/cdk.json file.

Observe: The Group Amazon Machine Picture (AMI) for Ignition is at the moment out there solely within the us-east-1 Area. In case you want to deploy the answer in one other Area, you’ll be able to copy the AMI utilizing the steps offered at Copy an AMI.

2.2 Set up Ignition software program

Launch an Amazon EC2 occasion and set up the Ignition software program utilizing AWS CDK. (In a real-world state of affairs, as a substitute of an Amazon EC2 occasion, you would use edge {hardware} inside your manufacturing unit.)

Change the listing to iot-factory-cdk and problem the next command to deploy a CDK stack, which incorporates all of the sources wanted to run Ignition.

cdk deploy OPCUAInstanceStack

Navigate to the AWS CloudFormation Console to confirm the deployment and search for a stack named OPCUAInstanceStack.

Observe: Write down the EC2IP, EC2PublicIP, and EC2Port parameter values. You’ll use them within the following steps.

2.3 Configure the Ignition software program to simulate information

Now that you’ve got put in Ignition software program, let’s configure it to simulate the information for the stamping presses. (In a real-world state of affairs, Ignition usually collects information from industrial gear, resembling stamping presses, by means of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs).

To configure Ignition, entry an internet browser. Permit inbound HTTP visitors to the underlying Amazon EC2 occasion internet hosting Ignition by following the directions at Authorize inbound visitors to your Linux cases. Alternatively, you could take into account organising port forwarding as demonstrated in this weblog put up to keep away from entry to the occasion from the general public IP handle by securely create tunnels between your cases.

Launch Ignition utilizing the URL http://<EC2PublicIP> and log in utilizing the default credentials (username: admin, password: password). Exchange EC2PublicIP with the worth famous in step 2.2.

You could need to change the default credentials following the directions at Gateway Safety earlier than continuing.

Now, create a knowledge simulator machine to symbolize manufacturing line 1 and two stamping presses following the steps beneath:

• Navigate to Config > OPC UA > System Connections.
• Create a brand new machine utilizing Create new System > Programmable System Simulator > Subsequent and use Manufacturing Line 1 as its title. Then, select Create New System.
• Load an current program to simulate information for temperature and strain measurements.
  • Select Extra > edit program > Load Simulator Program > Load from CSV choice.
  • Browse to iot-factory-cdk/iot_factory_cdk/stacks/opcua_datasource /simulator_program_instructions.csv and choose Load Simulator Program.
  • Select Save Program.

Your information simulator machine is prepared. Ignition begins simulating information for all 4 measurements each 1 second.

3.Create a digital illustration of business gear

Create asset fashions and property to digitally symbolize your stamping line and two stamping presses.

Problem the next command to deploy a CDK stack. This consists of all of the sources wanted from AWS IoT SiteWise.

cdk deploy SiteWiseAssetStack

Confirm the AWS IoT SiteWise sources by navigating to the AWS IoT SiteWise console → Belongings. You need to see the property arrange as proven within the following screenshot.

AWS IoT SiteWise console with property and asset hierarchy displayed