Design of an Educational-development Platform for Digital Twins using the Interoperability of the OPC UA Standard and Industry 4.0 Components

The development of Industry 4.0, especially in the areas of interoperability and the design, implementation and use of digital twins, has been enormous in recent years. This article discusses three key aspects that Industry 4.0 brings with it - virtualization through digital twins (DTs), interoperability based on the OPC UA standard, and the use of Industry 4.0's Administration Asset Shell (AAS) components. For the purpose of development and education, a design of an education and development platform has been developed, in which these key attributes of Industry 4.0 are conveniently combined into a single entity.