A Method for Model-Driven Engineering of Digital Twins in Manufacturing

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS), pp. 142–153

Abstract

Several software architectures for digital twins have been proposed, specifying their structure and key components, such as the ISO 23247 standard for manufacturing. However, systematic methodologies for developing digital twins in the manufacturing domain remain lacking. Existing research does not adequately address methodological aspects, such as composing essential digital twin components, defining their interfaces, and systematically analyzing relevant data. This gap presents a challenge for the structured development of digital twins. In this work, we introduce a systematic approach to identify key requirements for manufacturing digital twins and propose a model-driven method for their creation. Our approach enables the generation of executable digital twins based on a formalized specification. We demonstrate its applicability through multiple industrial manufacturing demonstrators, highlighting its suitability in practice. The proposed method is adaptable regarding the purpose of the digital twins to be developed and supports a largely automated process.

Authors 6

1. Malte Heithoff Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Software Engineering,Aachen,Germany

2. Judith Michael Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Software Engineering,Aachen,Germany

3. Bernhard Rumpe⋆ Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Software Engineering,Aachen,Germany

4. Jérôme Pfeiffer

   University of Stuttgart

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW), University of Stuttgart,Stuttgart,Germany

5. Andreas Wortmann

   University of Stuttgart

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW), University of Stuttgart,Stuttgart,Germany

6. Jingxi Zhang

   University of Stuttgart

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW), University of Stuttgart,Stuttgart,Germany