RFID meets OPC-UA - transparent and secure integration of sensor nodes into industrial and cloud environments

Experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) in Dresden have been developing compact, customer-customized sensor transponders for diverse industrial applications for years. Because passive RFID sensors are maintenance-free and battery independent, powered with energy provided solely by the RFID reader, RFID-Tags are predestined to replace the bulky sensor nodes of conventional battery-powered systems in industrial sensor networks. The presented middleware enables the simple integration of RFID equipment like identification transponders, sensor transponders and readers into industrial and cloud environments. This is realized by mapping hardware diversity and control complexity into a single generic OPC UA interface.