The asset administration shell (AAS) is an important component of Industry 4.0: it refers to the digital image of machines and systems as well as their processes in production and manufacturing. The administration shell contains a wide range of information about a specific asset, such as its identity, status, properties and relationships to other assets within the production process.

What are the advantages of an administration shell?

The special thing about the asset administration shell is that it stores this information in a standardized form as an industry-neutral and manufacturer-independent standard! This is because there is currently no standardized standard for the file format in which various machine parameters such as power consumption, throughput, etc. are provided. With the help of the asset administration shell, however, machine manufacturers can offer their customers the option of networking systems with different data formats from a wide range of manufacturers and simplifying their data integration and analysis. Machine operators can thus integrate new systems into their existing production lines and then monitor and optimize their processes as usual.

The asset administration shell is therefore an important basis for the realization of various IIoT scenarios, such as predictive maintenance or digital twins. Only the administration shell can ensure seamless integration and communication between the various components, such as the digital twins of machines and systems in a production process. The data of each machine and system, such as technical data, protocols, control algorithms, target values and maintenance intervals, are stored in the asset administration shell over the entire life cycle and thus made available to all stakeholders.

Industrial IoT platforms and IIoT software modules such as shopfoor.io often use digital twins in the form of an asset administration shell to map the assets in question, their hierarchy levels and status data in a user-friendly and useful way. All information required for the engineering of a system is provided in the asset administration shell. Machine operators can thus analyze the performance of their assets and optimize them, for example, through targeted maintenance work.

How is an asset administration shell structured?

In terms of content, the asset administration shell is divided into sub-models. Each model covers a use case by grouping different characteristics. A characteristic is further assigned to a value, value type and a SemanticID in order to clearly define the properties of a characteristic. Some standardized submodels already exist for the asset administration shell, such as those used in the IDTA aufgelistet sind.

How can you customize an administration shell?

It is possible to create your own new submodels that are individually tailored to your own use cases. A publication by Plattform Industrie 4.0 describes in more detail how an asset administration shell can be defined in practice using submodels.

Our AAS module, which is part of our shopfloor.io modular software system, is available to you for implementing your own asset administration shell with customer-specific submodels. With the help of this module, you are able to digitally map and centrally manage entire asset hierarchies in a plant and machine management system via a graphical user interface. We will be happy to advise you!