Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, has announced that its flagship product has been integrated with iQuest’s iQagent to deliver an augmented reality view of any industrial plant floor. The Kepware-supported iQuest application turns any plant floor into a data-rich environment by allowing technicians to gather, view and access all data associated with industrial machinery.
iQuest needed iQagent equipped to connect instantly to any machine regardless of its supported protocol. Engineered to support the OPC standard and over 150 different protocols, KEPServerEX allows iQagent to interact with virtually any piece of machinery to consolidate and display previously disparate resources, including operational data, schematics, technical resources and URLs associated with the equipment process. The iOS-supported application uses QR codes to identify the equipment or process area in the user’s vicinity and then displays all relevant process data, document links and resources in a highly intuitive user interface on an iPad or iPhone display.
Kepware’s KEPServerEX is specifically engineered to connect disparate devices and applications. It manages, monitors and controls diverse automation devices and software applications through a robust platform that supports an array of open standards. Kepware’s OPC drivers offer the broadest set of support and remove the burden of learning new communications protocols and applications.
“In the industrial automation industry, there is no standard language for communications like the widely known HTTP standard that you see on the Internet,” says Bob Meads, founder and CEO of iQuest. “So you can imagine how difficult it could be to get one application to connect to and communicate with disparate devices in an environment as diverse and complex as an industrial plant floor. With Kepware, it just worked.”
Since partnering with Kepware, iQagent has been implemented by a variety of customers, including the production facilities of one of the industry’s largest automotive companies and one of the world’s leading healthcare product developers.
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