A Common Logic for Industrial Digital Twins: Information Modeling and Semantics for AAS-sheltered Industrial Services

This document intends to provide an industrial semantics that integrates both the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) based methods for providing a digital representation of asset services and the semiotic triangle approach. The major difference between these methods is that the AAS-based method does not provide tools for formal semantics. Instead, semantics is expressed through ontological specifications in conceptual repository elements (CRE) referenced by submodel elements. In contrast, the semiotic triangle expresses semantics through morphisms relating artifacts from three disjoint domains: descriptive ontology, mental understanding, and physical phenomena. This document focuses on the semiotic style of representing semantics for industrial applications, particularly in smart manufacturing, using elements of the AAS-based approach. Industrial semantics, however, is an informal term required for the emerging field of smart manufacturing. It uses elements and entities of the AAS-based approach to specify information and data of signatures, as well as the semantics of asset services. Signatures provide structural information on how to access asset services by using structured submodel elements that in turn reference concept repository elements to provide properties of e.g. materials or production processes. Asset services that are accessed via submodel elements must capture the standardized signatures for accessing these asset services.