Digital twin and virtual commissioning

Digital twins are much more than just 3D models. They are digital images of real physical objects with all kinds of information about the components and system connections. This includes the unique description of their capabilities, their role within the machine, their behaviour, the simulation of their kinematics and kinetics, and their communication. By designing the Asset Administration Shell and and co-founding the Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA) in 2020, Festo fostered an important development. This creates a digital infrastructure that forms a standardised basis for all market participants (users, tool manufacturers, component manufacturers).

The Asset Administration Shell

The Asset Administration Shell is a concept that applies a practical approach to digital twins and establishes interoperability between concepts from different providers. It enables the use of different communication channels and applications and serves as a link between objects of the Internet of Things and the networked, digital and distributed world.

The Asset Administration Shell consists of a series of submodels in which all the information and functionalities of a particular asset are described. These submodels can contain features, characteristics, properties, status, parameters, measurement data and capabilities and provide standardised access, regardless of the manufacturer, across all lifecycle phases.

Sample use cases for the use of digital twins

Digital name plate

Name plates attached to products only have limited information because of the available space on the product or the size of the product and the usable font size. The "digital name plate" sub-model makes all the relevant information, including certificates and documentation, available digitally.

The benefits to you:

Saves time and money: immediate access to the latest documents
No printing and logistics costs: valid manufacturer-independent standard according to DIN SPEC 91406
Sustainability: saves resources and makes paper documentation unnecessary
Worldwide availability: makes documents available in the local language as well as the local certificates (CE, CCC, ...)

Structured machine-readable technical data

Technical data of components and systems are recorded in a separate sub-model and are available in a structured form and are clearly described. This means that, in contrast to today's documentation, the information can be recorded and processed automatically.

The benefits to you:

A central information container comprises all the important product data.
No laborious searches in manufacturer-specific online portals or paper documentation.
The technical data and characteristics are clearly described and available for machine processing.

Virtual commissioning

Tailored behaviour models for virtual commissioning enable the development steps to be carried out in parallel, thereby shortening the time to market.

The benefits to you:

Less time required for developing and commissioning machines and systems.
Increased model quality thanks to Festo's domain knowledge.
Less development and maintenance effort for model libraries.