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Functional digital twin development software for Industry 4.0

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Papyrus4Manufacturing can be used to model and deploy digital interfaces in factories as part of projects to roll out the digital, connected plant assets required for production line reconfiguration, supervision, and predictive maintenance.

With capabilities like “batch size 1” custom production and “plug and produce” production line modifications on the fly, Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing how plant assets are organized and used, making production lines not only more flexible, but also more resilient to unforeseen events.

Digital twins that adapt in real time to changes to the plant can be used to develop and deploy the digital, connected assets needed for reconfiguration, supervision, and predictive maintenance. Currently AAS (IEC 63278-1) is the only independent standard for plant digitalization.

An Asset Administration Shell, or AAS (a standardized digital representation of an asset), breaks each piece of plant equipment and software down into:

  • A functional digital model of the asset.
  • An interface programmed to communicate with other assets.

This manufacturing-industry standard, equivalent to the USB (universal serial bus) standard, is supported by manufacturing-industry groups Industria 4.0 in Italy, Platform 4.0 in Germany, and Alliance Industrie du Futur in France, and is well on its way to becoming the international standard for Industry 4.0.

One challenge, however, is that there are not many engineering tools available for AAS implementation, and those that do exist do not have all of the necessary features. End-to-end tools with graphical interfaces for modeling, automated deployment, standardized communication with plant equipment, and graphical representations of the assets connected are needed.

Papyrus4Manufacturing integration into a plant

CEA-List and German research institute DFKI contributed their know-how in model-driven engineering (MDE) to Papyrus4Manufacturing, which offers:

  • A modeling language developed specifically for Industry 4.0.
  • Graphical interfaces for the functional modeling of plant assets.
  • Automatic code generators for plant operation; connectivity to real equipment via IIoT communication protocols OPC-UA, MQTT, or ROS.

AAS-compliant Papyrus4Manufacturing can be used to design and deploy digital interfaces in the factory. Plant assets, products, and processes can be modeled, deployed, managed, and supervised inside the software.

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