PLC / OPC-UA / MQTT
connect lines
Line telemetry reaches Niobia through the standard industrial protocols, OPC UA, MQTT, and PLC tags, as a read-only stream. The reasoning layer observes the floor; it never actuates it, because a probabilistic agent cannot carry the deterministic guarantees control requires. This connector is being built.
What it measures
Connecting to a production line means speaking the protocols the floor already uses, and respecting the boundary that keeps it safe:
- The protocols: OPC UA and MQTT for modern equipment and brokers, direct PLC tag reads for the controllers, plus the data-engineering to handle high-frequency signals without aliasing them.
- The direction: read-only. Telemetry and equipment state flow into the analysis layer; nothing flows back out as a command. This is not a temporary limitation but the design.
- Why read-only is correct: a coater's web-tension loop or a welder's interlock has to respond inside a bounded time, every time. A probabilistic, variable-latency model cannot guarantee that, so actuation stays with certified deterministic control, and the agent reads.
How to read the output
The test of an OT integration is whether it respects the control boundary. A trustworthy one reads tags and streams, surfaces drift, and recommends, while leaving every actuation to the PLC. The dangerous pattern is an agent wired to write setpoints back to the floor: it trades the one property the line cannot lose, bounded-time deterministic response, for convenience. Read the integration for its direction first. Niobia's is read-only by construction, and the honest status is that this line connector is in active development rather than generally available today.
A real use case
A coating line exposes web tension, oven-zone temperatures, and line speed as OPC UA tags and PLC registers. Read into the analysis layer, those streams let Niobia watch for the drift that precedes a coating defect and flag it to the right engineer before it becomes scrap, the same role the reasoning layer plays for offline data, now on live process signals. What it does not do is nudge the tension setpoint back: that command stays on the line's certified controller. The value is in seeing the drift early and reasoning across it with the materials and quality data; the safety comes from never crossing into control.
Common mistakes
- Wiring an agent to write setpoints. It trades bounded-time deterministic response, the property a safety-critical line cannot give up, for convenience.
- Aliasing high-frequency signals by sampling them carelessly, so the telemetry that reaches analysis is already distorted.
- Treating OT data as if it were clean IT data: protocol gateways, edge connectivity, and network segmentation are real engineering, not a config toggle.
- Assuming a line connector exists when it is still being built. Niobia is explicit that this is in development rather than shipping today.
Read the floor over standard protocols, never actuate it
The design is the one set out in the battery AI architecture: the physical and control layer is read-only. Niobia's line integration ingests telemetry and equipment state over OPC UA, MQTT, and PLC tag reads, with the data engineering to handle high-frequency signals cleanly, and it never sends commands back. Actuation stays with the deterministic controllers that can guarantee a bounded-time response, which a language-model-driven agent cannot. The honest status: this connector is in active development. The boundary it is built around, observe and recommend, never actuate, is fixed and will not change as it ships.
Frequently asked
Which industrial protocols does this use?
OPC UA and MQTT for modern equipment and message brokers, plus direct PLC tag reads, with edge connectivity and protocol gateways to bring the signals in cleanly. The integration handles high-frequency data without aliasing it.
Will Niobia ever control the line?
No. The read-only boundary is by design, not a limitation to be lifted. Safety-critical actuation requires bounded-time deterministic response that a probabilistic agent cannot guarantee, so control stays with the certified PLC and Niobia observes and recommends.
Is the line connector available now?
It is in active development. The offline analysis layer and instrument ingestion are live today; the always-on OT line connector over OPC UA / MQTT is being built, around the same read-only boundary described here.