Discover the potential of digital twins! This concept plays a key role in Industry 4.0, as it is intended to bundle all relevant information models for automation components and functional chains and make them available as digital representations. This includes, for example, technical data, documentation as well as geometry and simulation models, which should be available and applicable throughout the product lifecycle, from the engineering process and virtual commissioning (VIBN) to the operating phases and recycling. Immerse yourself in the world of digital twins and take your production processes to the next level with our support.
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 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.
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:
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:
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:
Asset Administration Shells (AAS) have already been created for around 20,000 catalogue products and are available for download from a central cloud repository. These are continuously being expanded to include new submodels and additional products. The available Asset Administration Shells contain the following content (AAS submodels):
You can find the Asset Administration Shells that are currently available in our shop in the CAD download area under "digital twin". Examples: Digital twin for a mini slide DGST and digital twin for a servo drive CMMT. (Login required)
The information contained in the AAS "Technical data" submodel uses standardised ECLASS class features. It can thus be automatically imported into our customers' software landscape without any manual effort. Festo is a long-standing member of ECLASS and one of the main drivers of the specifications for pneumatic and electric automation components.
In addition to the classic download, we also offer a prototype server access through which our product data can be retrieved automatically via a standardised AAS API interface. Please contact us for exclusive test access.
An important application of digital twins is virtual commissioning. A digital model makes it much easier for the machine designer to test how the physical drives move in real life and how signals from the displacement encoder or end-position sensors are processed. Virtual commissioning enables processes to be run in parallel during the design phase of a machine or system, it ensures higher quality in the development of the control program and it shortens the actual time needed for commissioning on the shop floor.
Festo actively supports the development of the "simulation model" submodel for Asset Administration Shells and uses the cross-manufacturer FMI/FMU (functional mock-up interface/functional mock-up unit) standard format to map behaviour. This open standard is becoming increasingly important and is also supported by well-known simulation tools. The advantages are that models can be easily exchanged and integrated into the products of any manufacturer.