The Industrial Digital Twin Association e.V.(IDTA) has now published version 3.0 of the specification for the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) information model, which forms the basis for the standardized digital twin in the industry. In four parts, the specification describes how companies can prepare and structure information in the administration shell. The new version is ready for immediate implementation in the company. Future updates and extensions will be downward compatible. With the AAS specification in version 3.0, the industry has a standard for the industrial digital twin for the first time.

Key component for interoperability

"The AAS, with its uniform and open standards, is the key component for interoperability in the industry. The specification enables providers and users of hardware and software to create their own administration shells and thus create a cross-company system of digital twins for a wide range of components. The stable and industry-ready version guarantees planning security across industries and the value chain. This is a milestone for future data rooms," says Dr. Christian Mosch, Managing Director of IDTA.

Industry 4.0 platform laid the foundation

The specification defines the software structure, the interface and the semantics of the AAS, which make it possible to provide data from an industrial plant quickly and easily to all participants along the value chain in an interoperable manner across the entire life cycle, from engineering to recycling. The work of the responsible IDTA working group is based on the publications "Administration shell in detail" of the Industry 4.0 platform. A particular focus in the development of the new version was on industrial applicability. One important innovation is the specification of an official interface to the AAS - the so-called API. This enables partners in the value chain to exchange their data via the AAS across company boundaries and creates the necessary basis for the implementation of industrial data rooms in the future.

The AAS specification has been published in four parts:

• Part 1: Metamodel
• Part 2: Application Programming Interfaces (API)
• Part 3a: Data Specification - IEC 61360
• Part 5: Package File Format (AASX)

Further parts on the subject of data specification and security are currently in progress. All documents are available on the IDTA website.

The AAS is currently being standardized internationally in the IEC in accordance with IEC 63278. It is a central component of the Catena-X project, which describes the data space of the future automotive supply chain, and is also set in the future Manufacturing-X project, the data space of the manufacturing industry.