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The Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) and Plattform Industrie 4.0 announced the publication of a new whitepaper that explores digital twin technology concepts and their practical application in an organization. The joint whitepaper, Digital Twin and Asset Administration Shell Concepts and Application, provides clear and concise definitions of digital twin technologies, standards, and use cases. It also describes how the Plattform Industrie 4.0 Asset Administration Shell, an implementation of a digital twin for industrial applications, enables cross-company-interoperability across the complete value stream.

“Digital twin is a key enabler and widely applicable for various Industrial IoT (IIoT) and Plattform Industry 4.0 use cases,” said Shi-Wan Lin, CTO, Yo-I Information Technology and Co-Chair of the IIC Technology Working Group. “Many organizations have implemented largely proprietary digital twins, resulting in an undesirable situation in which digital twin technologies and solutions are hard to share and reuse. We need a common conceptual understanding of the digital twin concept, information, and interaction models to enable interoperability for a wider application of digital twin technologies.”

The IIC developed a cross-industry general description and characterization of digital twin, including its technical aspects and requirements in information modeling, information population, information synchronization, APIs, connectivity, deployment, security, and interoperability. In parallel, Plattform Industrie 4.0 focused on interoperability by building consensus on concrete semantics based on use cases involving digital twins. The Digital Twin and Plattform Industrie 4.0 Asset Administration Shell Concepts and Application whitepaper compares IIC findings with the technical capabilities of the Asset Administration Shell.

“The Asset Administration Shell is ready-to-implement and provides comprehensive support to the key requirements for digital twins as described and characterized by the IIC,” said Dr. Birgit Boss, Robert Bosch GmbH and Chair of the Task Group on Asset Administration Shell of Plattform Industrie 4.0. “Furthermore, the Asset Administration Shell can support digital twins beyond manufacturing use cases, although each industry must perform a thorough analysis to determine the applicability of the administration shell within its respective domain. Interoperability across industries is important for enabling new use cases and business models based on digital twins.”

The Digital Twin and Asset Administration Shell Concepts and Application whitepaper is one of several deliverables that are part of a liaison agreement between Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the IIC. The liaison program was designed to enable faster adoption of IIoT through collaboration with key industry partners.

The Digital Twin and Asset Administration Shell Concepts and Application white paper and a list of authors who contributed can be found on the IIC website and on the Plattform Industrie 4.0 website.

Plattform Industrie 4.0

Plattform Industrie 4.0 is the central network in Germany for the advancement of digital transformation towards Industrie 4.0. In close cooperation with politics, industry, science, associations, and trade unions, over 300 stakeholders from more than 150 organizations are actively involved in the platform. The platform develops and coordinates information and networking services to raise awareness of Industrie 4.0 solutions among companies and deploy them on-site.

Industrial Internet Consortium

The Industrial Internet Consortium is the world’s leading organization delivering transformative business value to organizations, industry, and society by accelerating adoption of a trustworthy internet of things. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a program of the Object Management Group (OMG). For more information visit www.iiconsortium.org.

_{Note to editors: The Industrial Internet Consortium is a registered trademark of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.html. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.}

Media Contacts:

Katharina Buch
Plattform Industrie 4.0 Secretariat
geschaeftsstelle@plattform-i40.de

Karen Quatromoni
Industrial Internet Consortium
quatromoni@iiconsortium.org