At Hannover Messe 2023, nine companies – Siemens, Bausch+Ströbel, Bosch Rexroth, CADENAS, Festo, HARTING, SICK, Phoenix Contact, and WAGO – have jointly demonstrated how the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) standard can be implemented in practice. Particularly, the companies have exchanged digital twin data according to the AAS standard and evaluated the added value based on a specific application with machinery manufacturer Bausch+Ströbel.

Thus, the nine partners made the interoperable digital twin based on AAS from the component manufacturer to the customer possible for the first time.

Efficient Exchange of Data

Driven by the Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA), the AAS standard is industry-neutral and independent of manufacturers. Hence, enabling all the information and functionality of a given asset to be documented and described and most importantly, shared. In the area of Industrie 4.0, it facilitates the digital representation, for example, of a product or a machine, based on a uniform “data language” and standard data access.

This is crucial for the efficient exchange of digital twin data between companies where the use of proprietary formats within heterogeneous systems and IT landscapes is prevalent. For customers, this means speeding up and simplifying the engineering process as asset data becomes more open, more readily exchanged, and can serve as the link between the physical and digital worlds.

Specific Applications

The partners are joining together at Hannover Messe to demonstrate how this can work, using a labeling machine from Bausch+Ströbel as an example. By providing component data in accordance with the Asset Administration Shell standard, the component manufacturers and software developers involved enabled Bausch+Ströbel to create a digital twin of the machine faster and more efficiently. For that reason, saving a great deal of engineering time and thus saving money.

“There is no longer any need to modify, search for, and complete the data, so we can begin our value-creating activities directly,” says Erich Bauer, Vice President of Research & Development at Bausch+Ströbel. “Thanks to the asset administration shell standard, the data is also of higher quality because, for example, we no longer have to reformat them.”

Moreover, Siemens has supported this demonstration using solutions from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of software. Component manufacturers were able to provide their digital twin data as an AAS directly via Teamcenter® software for product lifecycle management (PLM) using a prototype development.

Drives Industry 4.0, Digital Tranformation

Through prototypical AAS import add-ins within the engineering tools NX Mechatronics Concept Designer™, TIA Portal, and SIMIT, the generated component AAS could then quickly and easily be used for the engineering. In addition, each participating component manufacturers provided a digital twin of their components, such as sensors, plug connectors, and cylinders, in the form of an Asset Administration Shell. Based on this specific application with Bausch+Ströbel, the partners then jointly evaluated the added value of the AAS.

For that reason, the collaboration of the nine partners are driving Industrie 4.0 and the digital transformation in a crucial way. Other companies can join the working group.