DIGITAL TWINS
Embracing digital twins A Research and Markets report – Internet of Things (IoT) Digital Twinning: Market Outlook for IoT enabled Physical to Virtual Mapping and Management 2017-2022 – stated that, by 2022, 85% of all IoT platforms will embrace digital twins. Suzanne Gill finds out if industry is still on course to meet these figures.
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enedikt Rauscher, manager Global IoT / I4.0 Projects at Pepperl+Fuchs AG, believes that we are definitely on course to meet these figures. He said: “Digital twins are one of the most important and interesting applications for IoT platforms. They are generating added value during the engineering process, during integration and also during operation of plants or machines. Nearly all industrial platforms now also host digital twins or hold the data which is needed for setting up a digital twin.” Steve Sands, product and marketing manager at Festo UK, pointed out that Digital twins have been available in different forms for several years. For example, Festo has implemented an identifier called a Product Key. Typing
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November 2019
this code into the support portal or simply accessing it through a mobile device by reading a mini QR code the user can gain a detailed understanding of the product. They can draw down from the cloud the product description, images, drawings and connection diagrams, installation procedures and spare parts information. This contains information generic to the part and also individual to its manufacture such as its configuration, manufacture site and date, hardware, firmware versions etc. Industry 4.0 is driving this process further by standardising on a common format called the Administration Shell which enables data such as this to be digitally exchanged and understood in machine-to-machine communications. IIoT platforms will definitely embrace digital twins and this is already in
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practical use today. Work on the definition and demonstration of the Administration is intensively underway, describing the information content and providing it in UML diagram, XML, JSON and shortly OPC-UA and AutomationML formats. I went on to ask further questions: Q: What effect are you seeing digital twin technology having on different market sectors (machine builders, systems integrators and end users in manufacturing sector)? Sands: Standardised, digital twins will be essential in making many of today’s tasks faster, easier and more powerful. Machine builders will be able to configure and create powerful simulations of components, subassemblies and machines. Multiple
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