OPC UA LADS

Hi there 👋 - A warm welcome to OPC UA LADS - the "Laboratory & Analytical Device Standard" built on OPC UA

Browse the standard: https://reference.opcfoundation.org/LADS/v100/docs/

We want to help you get started and enable you to enter the strong foundations of the OPC UA ecosystem for your laboratory/analytical devices.

1. Learn about OPC UA

As a first step we want to encourage you to learn more about OPC UA, so it becomes even cleare why we chose to create LADS upon this strong foundation:

https://youtu.be/-tDGzwsBokY?si=pps0To__1PdD_2nt

and for more information have a look at this playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLROM1mLWekVCzxGMs6kzpBnJiDh3fiquD&si=C4AJLMzhdeQlbYNV

2. Learn about the concepts of OPC UA LADS

If you directly want to dive into OPC UA LADS, we can recommend recorded talks by Dr. Matthias Arnold, the lead author of OPC UA LADS 30500:

LADS OPC UA at Jasis 2023:

https://youtu.be/ddMEdx3CwAk?si=lv2ZlyeNN9NnmN0s

LADS OPC UA at OPC Days 2023:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUcpQdN2Xek&list=PLROM1mLWekVBo57WTnReI_-5yVbIK4koW&index=5

3. Create a OPC UA LADS device

If you are all prepared with the theory, then you may want to get started with our workshop example: https://github.com/opcua-lads/workshop

The workshop provides a complete device model and a server utilizing nodejs/ts.

Soon we will link additional exmaples to use the workshop device model also with prominent stacks for C/C++ and C#

4.Ecosystem Projects - FAIR-by-Design

We are continuously growing the OPC UA LADS ecosystem to accelerate the development of FAIR-by-design laboratory data infrastructures. Two new open-source components are now available:

`lads-server-collection`

A curated collection of simulated OPC UA servers that implement the LADS (Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard) Companion Specification. These servers:

Deliver data modeled using the Allotrope Foundation Ontologies (AFO)
Provide structured result data in ASM (Allotrope Simple Model) format
Are FAIR-by-Design, ensuring that results are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable
Demonstrate end-to-end semantic integration with OPC UA dictionary references (Part 19), aligning real-time device data with high-level semantic context

This collection enables plug & play demonstrations of semantic lab integration – from basic instruments to high-end analytical systems.

`lads-client-py`

A Python-based client application and library for interacting with LADS-compatible OPC UA servers. It includes:

A user interface for browsing and operating LADS servers
Semantic tooltips and context based on AFO
Functionality to test whether a server:
- Follows the expected LADS object model
- Provides semantically correct annotations
- Outputs results in valid ASM JSON format