A Methodology for Digital Twin Modeling and Deployment for Industry 4.0

The digital twin (DT) is a virtual representation of a physical object, which has been proposed as one of the key concepts for Industry 4.0. The DT provides a virtual representation of products along their lifecycle that enables the prediction and optimization of the behavior of a production system and its components. A methodology design using model-driven engineering (MDE) is proposed that strives toward being both flexible and generic. This approach is presented at two levels: first, a DT is modeled as a composition of basic components that provide basic functionalities, such as identification, storage, communication, security, data management, human–machine interface (HMI), and simulation; second, an aggregated DT is defined as a hierarchical composition of other DTs. A generic reference architecture based on these concepts and a concrete implementation methodology are proposed using AutomationML. This methodology follows an MDE approach that supports most of the DT features currently proposed in the literature. A case study has been developed, the proposed ideas are being evaluated with industrial case studies, and some of the preliminary results are described in this article. With the case study, it is possible to verify that the proposed methodology supports the creation and the deployment process of a DT.