Digital Twins, first introduced in the early 2000s, have consistently been a prominent focus of research, particularly within the manufacturing sector, where approximately 80% of studies are concentrated. Originally, the concept centered around gathering data and information throughout the entire Product Life Cycle. Over time, Digital Twin technology has expanded into various fields, including Health and Safety, Virtual Commissioning, and further developments within manufacturing. A significant milestone in this area was the introduction of the ISO 23247 standard, which provides guidelines for integrating Digital Twins in manufacturing. However, as it will be detailed throughout the report, although it defines a specific framework for implementing the digital twin technologies in manufacturing environments, it falls short in specific relevant topics like the connectivity of digital twins between them.
This thesis reviews recent publications on the topic of interconnecting Digital Twins to identify commonalities and the most effective technologies for enabling such connectivity. Notably, it starts with exploring the concept of “interoperability” in Digital Twin environments, a topic that has been under discussion within standardization organizations. Interoperability, as defined by the ISO 21823 standard, involves the ability of two or more systems or applications to exchange and mutually utilize information.
Several sources of information have been consulted to form an accurate state-of-the-art about Digital Twin Interoperability. Specialized academic search engines with advanced search string filters have been used to retrieve specific papers on the topic. The main target was to identify weather or not industry was dealing with the challenge of connecting digital twins, and if so, the approach that it was taken, that being, the main topics explored by researchers and the most named technologies, frameworks and methodologies.
In that aspect, the Asset Administration Shell, a framework first conceived in 2015 by Plattform Industrie 4.0, led by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, has been acknowledged to be a key enabler for interoperability in the Industry 4.0 Environment. Several papers analyzing this technology have been commentated in the report, highlighting the research conducted on it, and the complementary technologies that support the interoperability aspect of Digital Twins. The spread of this technology is prominent in research, and currently an international standard, supervised by the International Electrotechnical Commission, is under production.
Keeping the focus on the Asset Administration Shell technology, specific architectures available in research are analysed to conceive a list of requirements that characterize connecting digital twins between them. In addition, the Product Carbon footprint estimation is presented as a relevant topic, due to future regulatory requirements that will be imposed by the European Union. In that regard, a reference architecture to enable the Product Carbon Footprint by connecting digital twin entities among them based on the Asset Administration Shell is presented.
In conclusion, the main goal achieved by the production of this report has been double: First, a research activity was performed to describe the research environment in the interoperability between Industry 4.0 Components. Relevant advancements made both by researchers and standardization organizations in the task of conceiving a technological solution to connect digital twins are compiled in this document. Secondly, the Asset Administration Shell was acknowledged as an interesting technical tool to succeed in connecting digital twins. This is shown by the fact that standardization organizations and the consensus of specialized scholars have appointed the technology as a key player in the interoperability environment of Digital Twins. To contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the topic, papers presenting architectures that enabled digital twin connectivity were analyzed, to propose a list of requirements. Lastly, a diagram showing the communication points for enabling the product carbon footprint calculation was conformed. Specific literature was appointed relevant to the task, as it treated in one way or another the communication between the different agents involved.
Digital Twins, first introduced in the early 2000s, have consistently been a prominent focus of research, particularly within the manufacturing sector, where approximately 80% of studies are concentrated. Originally, the concept centered around gathering data and information throughout the entire Product Life Cycle. Over time, Digital Twin technology has expanded into various fields, including Health and Safety, Virtual Commissioning, and further developments within manufacturing. A significant milestone in this area was the introduction of the ISO 23247 standard, which provides guidelines for integrating Digital Twins in manufacturing. However, as it will be detailed throughout the report, although it defines a specific framework for implementing the digital twin technologies in manufacturing environments, it falls short in specific relevant topics like the connectivity of digital twins between them.
This thesis reviews recent publications on the topic of interconnecting Digital Twins to identify commonalities and the most effective technologies for enabling such connectivity. Notably, it starts with exploring the concept of “interoperability” in Digital Twin environments, a topic that has been under discussion within standardization organizations. Interoperability, as defined by the ISO 21823 standard, involves the ability of two or more systems or applications to exchange and mutually utilize information.
Several sources of information have been consulted to form an accurate state-of-the-art about Digital Twin Interoperability. Specialized academic search engines with advanced search string filters have been used to retrieve specific papers on the topic. The main target was to identify weather or not industry was dealing with the challenge of connecting digital twins, and if so, the approach that it was taken, that being, the main topics explored by researchers and the most named technologies, frameworks and methodologies.
In that aspect, the Asset Administration Shell, a framework first conceived in 2015 by Plattform Industrie 4.0, led by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, has been acknowledged to be a key enabler for interoperability in the Industry 4.0 Environment. Several papers analyzing this technology have been commentated in the report, highlighting the research conducted on it, and the complementary technologies that support the interoperability aspect of Digital Twins. The spread of this technology is prominent in research, and currently an international standard, supervised by the International Electrotechnical Commission, is under production.
Keeping the focus on the Asset Administration Shell technology, specific architectures available in research are analysed to conceive a list of requirements that characterize connecting digital twins between them. In addition, the Product Carbon footprint estimation is presented as a relevant topic, due to future regulatory requirements that will be imposed by the European Union. In that regard, a reference architecture to enable the Product Carbon Footprint by connecting digital twin entities among them based on the Asset Administration Shell is presented.
In conclusion, the main goal achieved by the production of this report has been double: First, a research activity was performed to describe the research environment in the interoperability between Industry 4.0 Components. Relevant advancements made both by researchers and standardization organizations in the task of conceiving a technological solution to connect digital twins are compiled in this document. Secondly, the Asset Administration Shell was acknowledged as an interesting technical tool to succeed in connecting digital twins. This is shown by the fact that standardization organizations and the consensus of specialized scholars have appointed the technology as a key player in the interoperability environment of Digital Twins. To contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the topic, papers presenting architectures that enabled digital twin connectivity were analyzed, to propose a list of requirements. Lastly, a diagram showing the communication points for enabling the product carbon footprint calculation was conformed. Specific literature was appointed relevant to the task, as it treated in one way or another the communication between the different agents involved. Read More
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