OPC Foundation Develops Companion Specification for Spatial Intelligence

The OPC Foundation said its new OPC UA companion specification for asset identification and location, based on the open locating standard omlox, has been developed to establish the foundation for a common language of “spatial intelligence.”  

This specification was developed in response to what the OPC Foundation said is part of a shift in industrial automation towards physical AI, as machines, robots and mobile systems learn to “understand” space.  

Physical AI is AI that actively perceives physical space and acts contextually, which means it requires a unified understanding of positions, movements, and identities in their environment.  

“Machines need a unified understanding of their position in space for coordinated interaction between stationary equipment and mobile robots,” explained Dr. Matthias Jöst, committee leader omlox at Profibus and Profinet International.  

The companion specification reportedly harmonizes the spatial data model for absolute positions within OPC UA to allow for the positioning of assets in the physical and digital world.   

This enables an integration of spatial data into industrial IT and OT systems, which is necessary for autonomous mobile robots, intelligent assistance systems and self-organizing production environments.  

The specification was developed as part of a collaboration between AIM-D, omlox, Profibus and Profinet International and the OPC Foundation to create a foundation that equips robots, vehicles and machines with a shared spatial understanding, which is considered key to physical AI applications, resilient supply chains and autonomous industrial ecosystems.   

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