Digital twins as the key to Industry 4.0

Digital twins are one of the main pillars of Industry 4.0. They enable physical objects to be precisely mapped in the digital world and increase efficiency in production. They are the basis for many use cases that require cross-company data exchange and are therefore the key to the digitalization of production. With the AAS Dataspace for Everybody, Fraunhofer IESE offers a solution for the creation and operation of digital twins within a company and for their cross-company exchange. This is realized on the basis of administration shells (AAS - Asset Administration Shell) - a standard format for Industry 4.0. The solution is aimed at companies of all sizes, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large industrial players. The AAS Dataspace for Everybody is already being used successfully by 16 companies that exchange digital twins with their corporate partners via the data room.

From prototype to real production application

One aim of the AAS Dataspace for Everybody is to enable companies to digitize their production at a low threshold. To this end, they can easily implement digital twins with administration shells via the Eclipse BaSyx middleware as part of a large open source community. With AAS Dataspace for Everybody, manufacturing companies decide for themselves where digital twins are made available. If a manufacturer hosts the data in its own IT system, all sensitive information automatically remains on the company's own servers. If hosting on the data room itself is desired instead, highly available and scalable components are also available for this.

Manufacturing companies can first try out digital twins in a prototype environment and gain experience with digitalization and data rooms before going live. Onboarding and operation are deliberately kept simple so that applications can be put into use quickly. If the solution is to be used in productive operation, Fraunhofer IESE's partner companies offer professional solutions and specific integrations with service level agreements. The partner companies are: NetApp Deutschland GmbH, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, Credativ GmbH and Congatec GmbH. 

Dr. Thomas Kuhn, Head of the Embedded Systems Department at Fraunhofer IESE, emphasizes: "I am very pleased that our dataspace has already reached the next stage of development. The service level agreements with our partners create the necessary basis for the AAS Dataspace for Everybody to be used reliably in production. We have thus created the ideal solution for the digitalization of industry and supply chains."
 

Application examples: efficient data exchange for smart production

A key advantage of the AAS Dataspace for Everybody is its versatility. Fraunhofer IESE will be presenting four practical scenarios at the Hannover Messe. One way to increase efficiency with the help of digital twins is to share production data across systems, such as production status or on-time delivery. Information can flow together automatically and thus enable optimized production control.

In a live demonstration, Fraunhofer IESE presents the application of the AAS Dataspace for Everybody for remote maintenance. Even in modern “lights-out factories”, where operations are automated, human intervention is required in the event of a malfunction. Here, the data room enables remote-controlled operation by an Operator-as-a-Service (OaaS). Fraunhofer IESE will be demonstrating this application at its stand using a live demo factory from the Vicomtech research foundation in Spain.

In addition to the live demonstration, Fraunhofer IESE will also present the precise calculation of the CO2 footprint of products along the entire supply chain. The creation of digital product passports, which provide detailed information on the origin and sustainability of products, will also be demonstrated.