Node-Red and OPC UA Based Lightweight and Low-Cost Historian with Application in the Water Industry

Abstract

In the context of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the interoperation of structures and the OPC UA interfacing is of high importance for automation and SCADA systems. Besides process monitoring and control, the historian concept is gaining more and more importance when data circulates vertically and horizontally on automation and supervisory levels. The specificity of the water industry requires a decentralized historian that is able to handle particular needs of local processes. The current work proposes a lightweight and low-cost historian that is applicable on both automation and SCADA levels. The solution consists of a main Java application that embeds the Node-red platform for interfacing with local structures and implements the OPC UA protocol. The developed historian is tested on objectives from the water industry. A water treatment plant test scenario is presented, the results proving the effectiveness of the solution.