Sharing of Asset Administration Shells with the International Data Spaces

Data exchange between industry partners is a challenging task, especially when critical production data from factories is involved. While the partner wants as much information as possible, the factory owner is hesitant and shares only minimal amount of data with his partners. After data sharing, control over the data is lost, making data sharing a question of trust. The IDSA strives to create a global secure network in which data owners can choose how their data is used and distributed. The key concept in this architecture is the International Data Spaces (IDS) Connector, which provides access to the IDS and provides this functionality. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a new core concept in Industry 4.0 and is a further standardization attempt that includes many established protocols like OPC UA and several serialization formats. Our contribution aims to connect different standards and organizations like the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and Plattform Industrie 4.0 (PI 4.0) in order to share AASs via the IDS. For this, a software service is generated based on AAS descriptions and deployed in an IDS Connector.