Industrial automation manufacturer and Internet of Things platform developer Opto 22 announced immediate availability of Node-RED nodes for its industrial programmable automation controllers, significantly decreasing IIoT application development time and complexity. These Node-RED nodes for PACs make it easier to prototype and develop applications for connecting physical assets to cloud applications. 

Rapid IIoT Application Prototyping
Linking technology assets and services together to build IIoT applications often requires layers of complex software development and long development cycles that quickly erode IIoT application ROI. Opto 22’s Node-RED nodes for SNAP PAC programmable automation controllers enable nearly anyone to rapidly prototype and develop IIoT applications with Node-RED, opening a path to quickly connect legacy physical assets to the digital world of cloud services.

Node-RED for IIoT
Node-RED is an innovative visual wiring tool to connect edge computing systems such as industrial automation controllers to cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT, IBM Watson IoT, and Microsoft Azure in new and interesting ways. Node-RED is an open-source, cross-platform technology available online, and is currently available for a variety of platforms.

Lowering the Technical Bar

The Node-RED development environment offers a gradual and easily approachable learning curve for users of all levels and requires little to no programming skills. Instead, Node-RED takes advantage of pre-programmed, reusable code blocks called nodes. These nodes make IIoT application development simpler, easier to repeat, and faster to scale. Through a visual browser-based, drag-and-drop interface, Node-RED allows IIoT application developers to focus on identifying an opportunity and developing a solution, rather than building the components of an application from scratch.

Advanced JavaScript functions can also be created within the editor using a Function node. A built-in library lets developers save useful functions, templates, or node flows for re-use. The flows created in Node-RED are stored using the widely known JSON format, which can be easily imported and exported for sharing with other developers and applications, promoting the idea of social application development.

Opto 22
www.opto22.com