Fraunhofer IOSB

Smart Factory Web - Connecting the Industrie 4.0 Asset Administration Shell

Challenge

Data exchange between partners is a challenging task, especially when critical production data from factories is involved. While the customers want as much information as possible, the producer is reluctant to share any data with unknown partners. The IDSA strives to create global secure data spaces in which data owners can choose how their data is used and distributed within a given domain (e.g. manufacturing, energy, healthcare, logistics).  

Fraunhofer IOSB has developed the IDS OPC UA Factory Connector to connect smart factories over OPC UA to IDS. As use case we chose our marketplace for industrial production, the Smart Factory Web, where factory owners offer their production capabilities to customers world-wide. By modeling their supply chains in the Smart Factory Web, the factory owner can decide which partner and under which conditions and constraints the factory data can be used. For example, the factory owner can share information about a product with verified SFW customers while production data is only visible to partners of the active supply chain.  

Our contribution aims to connect different standards such as those of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and the Platform Industrie 4.0. 

Success

The OPC UA Factory Connector is the gateway to the IDS and connects any factory to any IDS participant such as other customers or the Smart Factory Web.  

Our connector combines the benefits of IDS connectors (secure and standardized communication, data usage control) with the interoperability technologies and applications of Industrie 4.0. In consequence, any Asset Administration Shell (AAS) in the factory can be published and secured over IDS. 

In order to realize our solution, we created an AAS model and instance for our bulk sorter in OPC UA format. In the Smart Factory Web, we modeled supply chains with different partners. The OPC UA Factory Connector is able toretrieve the data from the AAS and verify which partner of our supply chain is allowed to use which data element. After the validation and enforcement of the data usage policies, the selected data elements are made visible in our demonstrator. 

P

Benefits

  • Integration and Interoperability with Asset Administration Shell 
  • Data usage control via IDS 
  • New business opportunities by publishing factory capabilities and assets in marketplaces for industrial production such as the “Smart Factory Web” 

Partners/Ecosystem

  • Fraunhofer IOSB
  • Fraunhofer Data Spaces 
  • IDS-Industrial Community
  • Platform Industrie 4.0
  • Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
  • KETI, Microsoft, SAP

Main Technology/IDS Component

  • OPC UA Factory Connector (Extended IDS Base Connector) 
  • IDS “MYDATA Usage Control” 
  • Smart Factory Web, platform / marketplace for industrial production as source for supply chain information 
  • Asset Administration Shell in different technology mappings (e.g. OPC UA, AutomationML)