Real Time Automation Opens the Historian for Allen-Bradley PLCs to the Entire Plant Floor – and to AI. New Version Adds Modbus TCP, Modbus Serial and Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support

Pewaukee, WI – June 22, 2026 – Real Time Automation (RTA), a leader in industrial connectivity solutions, today announced a major new version of its Historian that extends data collection beyond Allen-Bradley PLCs to the wider universe of Modbus devices and, for the first time, lets AI assistants securely query historized plant data through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Purpose-built for manufacturers and machine builders, the Historian is a hardware appliance that collects, locally stores and visualizes high-resolution, time-series data directly from the plant floor – without complex software layers or ongoing SaaS fees.

It operates entirely on-premise and is modular and cost effective for deployment in machines, giving operations teams absolute ownership of their data along with the local, high-fidelity storage they need to troubleshoot equipment, analyze performance and make better business decisions.

This release builds on that foundation with broader device connectivity and a new bridge between operational data and artificial intelligence.

Modbus TCP for Plant-Wide Ethernet Connectivity

The Historian now connects natively to Modbus TCP devices over standard Ethernet networks. This lets engineers historize data from power meters, drives, flow computers, sensors and the thousands of other Modbus TCP devices already installed across their facilities.

The benefit is a single, unified embedded historian to monitor machine operation, eliminating data silos and giving teams one trusted source of truth for analysis, KPI tracking, compliance and troubleshooting equipment.

Modbus Serial for Legacy and Field Device Connectivity

With new Modbus RTU/serial support, the Historian reaches the large installed base of serial field devices that have no Ethernet port, including older meters, RTUs and instrumentation in remote or harsh locations.

The benefit is extended equipment life and full data visibility into assets that would otherwise be stranded, allowing customers to capture valuable process data from legacy hardware without costly rip-and-replace upgrades.

MCP Support for Secure, AI-Driven Data Analysis

The headline addition is native support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that allows AI assistants to securely connect to data sources.

Through MCP, engineers and operators can now ask questions of their plant data in plain language, such as “Which line had the most downtime last shift?” or “Show me energy use on the boiler this week,” and have an AI assistant retrieve and reason over the historized records directly.

The benefit is dramatically faster time-to-insight. Rather than writing queries or building dashboards, teams get answers conversationally, while the data stays on-premises and under the customer’s control.

MCP turns the Historian from a passive data store into an interactive, AI-ready knowledge base for the plant floor.

Competitive Differentiation

Unlike competitor products, the Historian combines high-capacity local storage, flexible publishing triggers, customizable data transformations and secure multi-user account control with the newest additions, multi-vendor Modbus connectivity and AI access through MCP.

The result is a scalable, secure and “No SaaS” solution that connects more of the plant and makes its data instantly usable by both people and AI.

“With this release we’re connecting more of the plant floor and opening the door to a new way of working with industrial data,” said John Rinaldi, Real Time Automation President. “Adding Modbus TCP and serial means the Historian speaks to far more of your equipment, and adding MCP means your data can finally answer questions for you. We’re making your process data meaningful, actionable and now, conversational.”

About Real Time Automation

Real Time Automation (RTA) delivers simple, reliable and secure industrial connectivity solutions for manufacturers worldwide. With decades of expertise in PLC integration, protocol conversion and industrial networking, RTA helps customers unlock the power of their plant data.

For more information about the Historian, visit www.rtautomation.com/historian, call 800-249-1612 or email solutions@rtautomation.com.

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