Structured text programming to visualize the distribution of packages on a conveyor

Automation is a process of increasing production and reducing the downtime of any industry. With the integration of sensor data to the cloud using an OPC-VA communication protocol, the automation becomes more prominent and interesting. However, many existing industrial controllers do not support open platform communication unified architecture (OPC-VA) and it needs an IIoT device to connect the cloud. The existing programmable logic controller in any industry have to be connected to an IIoT device through Ethernet. Sensors connected to the controller will transmit the data to the IIoT device. The transmission can also be bidirectional. In this paper, a conveyor which distributes packages is simulated in Codesys and it is visualized in a human-machine interface (HMI) screen which is in-built in the software. The hardware set-up is made with the industrial controller to execute the same. A methodology to send the data from the controller to the cloud using open platform communication unified architecture (OPC-UA) is proposed