Cross-PLC: An I3oT Cross Platform to Manage Communications for Applications in Real Factories

Recently, a new concept has emerged for the development of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications, the Industrializable Industrial Internet of Things (I3oT). As a criterion for the design of industrial applications, the I3oT imposes the exclusive use of pre-installed elements in the company such as PLCs, sensors, IT/OT networks, etc., trying to minimize the impact on the factories and guaranteeing a cheap and assumable scalability for companies, something that cannot be implemented with the vast majority of IIoT applications available in the market. In our previous work, we have used I3oT applications for predictive maintenance on different components: cylinders, presses, welding clamps and also energy-saving tools, detection of bottlenecks and sub-bottlenecks, etc., all of them generalized for the entire factory. However, the main drawback comes from the flow of data through the IT/OT network. This article presents the Cross-PLC, a tool to allow massive data extraction using the company’s IT/OT network by communicating with any type of PLC or brand existing in the market. The Cross-PLC performs passive listening, and through different communication criteria, the Cross-PLC becomes a virtual PLC containing all the parameters necessary for the I3oT applications developed. This article presents the design of this tool, its implementation and use at Ford Factory in Almussafes (Valencia).