In industry, it is standard practice for manufacturers to inform their customers about product changes – for instance, when a component is modified or new firmware becomes available. Within the Asset Administration Shell framework, this is addressed through the "Product Change Notification" (PCN) submodel. However, with digitalization through Asset Administration Shells, changes also occur at a different level: manufacturers update the digital description templates of their products, add new properties, or restructure information. These "model changes" do not affect individual devices but rather the blueprints according to which hundreds of devices are described. An example: a manufacturer extends the description template for their flowmeters with new energy efficiency indicators. All already installed flowmeters would need to adapt their digital description accordingly. No established communication mechanism exists for this yet. 

GOALS:

The thesis extends existing PCN practices from process industries with the new perspective of model changes. While PCNs describe "Product X has functionally changed," Model Change Notifications (MCN) should describe "The description template for product family Y has changed." The work uses the Asset Administration Shell standard as technical foundation and analyzes which information must be contained in an MCN so that recipients (plant operators, system integrators) can understand and automatically implement the changes. Different change categories are distinguished, each requiring specific information. Basic understanding of information meta modeling and industrial processes is assumed but can be significantly deepened during the thesis.

HELPFUL PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

• Information Meta-Modeling (AAS, RAMI4.0)
• Software-Architectures 
• CPM / CPPS