Glossary · PLC and control programming
TwinCAT IoT
Also known as: Beckhoff TwinCAT IoT
German: TwinCAT IoT
In industrial automation, TwinCAT IoT is Beckhoff's group of TwinCAT functions that connect the controller to IoT and cloud services, for example through publish/subscribe protocols such as MQTT and through messaging to mobile devices.
- PLC programming
- Vendor product
In one sentence
TwinCAT IoT is Beckhoff's set of TwinCAT functions connecting controllers to cloud and IoT services, for example via MQTT.
Example
A PLC publishes energy consumption values every minute via MQTT to a message broker, from which a cloud dashboard reads them.
How it applies
- Engineering: IoT functions let the PLC program send and receive data through function blocks, or configure data exchange without code. Data formats such as JSON and topic structures need to be agreed with the receiving systems.
- Security: Connections from the control system to external brokers or clouds are conduits in IEC 62443 terms. They need encryption, authentication and a firewall design; direct inbound access to controllers should be avoided.
- Operation: Store-and-forward and reconnection behavior determine whether data is lost when the network fails.
- Documentation: Document topics, payload structures, units, update rates and the security settings. Customers' IT departments usually ask for this information before approving a connection.
Keep in mind: product names and features change. Check supported protocols and services against the vendor's current documentation.