quasar : The Full-Stack Solution for Creation of OPC-UA Middleware

Quasar (Quick OPC-UA Server Generation Framework) enables efficient development of OPC-UA servers. The project evolved into a software ecosystem providing complete OPC-UA support for Detector Control Systems. OPC-UA servers can be modeled and generated and profit from tooling to aid development, deployment and maintenance. OPC-UA client libraries can be generated and published to users. Client-server chaining is supported. quasar was used to build OPC-UA servers for different computing platforms including server machines, credit-card computers as well as System-on-a-chip solutions. Quasar generated servers can be integrated as slave modules into other software projects written in higher-level programming languages (such as Python) to provide OPC-UA information exchange. quasar supports quick and efficient integration of OPC-UA servers into a control system based on the WinCC OA SCADA platform. The ecosystem can work with different OPC-UA stacks including 100% free and open-source ones. Thus it’s not restricted by licensing constraints. The contribution will present an overview and the evolution of the ecosystem along with example applications from ATLAS DCS and beyond.