MBD-Enhanced Asset Administration Shell for Generic Production Line Design

The production line must continuously adjust to meet the increasing demand for individualized products, such as the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production line. However, the lack of interoperability among equipment hinders the rapid reconfiguration of a production line. The reference architecture model for Industry 4.0 (
I4.0
) introduces an asset administration shell (AAS) as a new technique to facilitate I4.0 interoperability. AAS is a specification that presents a standard manner to represent assets. To further enhance AAS configuration efficiency, we propose model-based definition (MBD)-enhanced AAS (MBD-AAS) for generic production line design. MBD-AAS optimizes AAS configuration and enables plug-and-play equipment for the production line. We validate the applicability and benefits of MBD-AAS with a case study of a UAV production line design. The experimental results demonstrate that MBD-AAS improves AAS’s interoperability and reduces production line design time.