Software-heavy Asset Administration Shells: Classification and Use Cases

TL;DR

This paper systematically analyzes software-heavy Asset Administration Shell architectures, focusing on integration of software services and use cases in manufacturing, providing guidelines for academia and industry.

Contribution

It offers a systematic classification of software-heavy AAS architectures based on quality criteria and use cases, filling a research gap.

Findings

Classification framework for software-heavy AAS architectures

Identification of key quality criteria for integration

Use case-based differentiation of architectures

Abstract

The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is an emerging technology for the implementation of digital twins in the field of manufacturing. Software is becoming increasingly important, not only in general but specifically in relation to manufacturing, especially with regard to digital manufacturing and a shift towards the usage of artificial intelligence. This increases the need not only to model software, but also to integrate services directly into the AAS. The existing literature contains individual solutions to implement such software-heavy AAS. However, there is no systematic analysis of software architectures that integrate software services directly into the AAS. This paper aims to fill this research gap and differentiate architectures based on software quality criteria as well as typical manufacturing use cases. This work may be considered as an interpretation guideline for software-heavy AAS, both in academia and for practitioners.