Enabling Static Digital Twins

  • Subject:Classification and use of references to separate static and dynamic values in the Asset Administration Shell
  • Type:Master's thesis
  • Date:16.07.2026
  • Supervisor:

    Moritz Dorn

  • Links:Tender

  • This Master's thesis investigates how static and dynamic information in the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) can be clearly separated. A component's digital twin contains values defined during engineering as well as values that change dynamically during operation. References are analysed and used so that dynamic values remain discoverable in the static model via their static reference. The result is a static digital twin that still provides the complete picture.

MOTIVATION:

The digital twin is the information model that contains all the data needed to describe a component. This data is enriched with metadata to become information. When the information is sorted, it falls into two categories: values fixed for operation through the engineering process and therefore static, and values with a dynamics tolerated by the engineering process. To infer the controlled reality from the digital twin, everything static must be separated from everything dynamic. For this, dynamic values must be discoverable in the static model via the appropriate static reference, so that the overall picture can be reconstructed.


OBJECTIVES:

First, the state of the art of AAS engineering and of referencing within the AAS is analysed. In addition, the thesis examines which target systems can be referenced at all and what their state of the art looks like. Building on this, a concept for the automatic resolution of such references is developed. The thesis evaluates how unambiguously references can be made across dynamic ranges and develops a concept to make references more unambiguous. This creates the prerequisite for a static digital twin.


HELPFUL PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

 

  • Little hesitation about programming and rapid software prototyping
  • Strong interest in fundamental concepts of model theory
  • Interest in the interoperability of information-model-based systems

 

Asset Administration Shell as the information model of a component
From data to information model