Interoperable meta model for simulation-in-the-loop

In the context of industry 4.0, where factory components become more and more intelligent, the role of virtualization and simulation becomes central. This paper presents a flexible, modular, scalable, extensible and interoperable modelling language expressly designed to support multi-disciplinary simulations. In particular, the language is based on a meta-model that provides patterns of both hierarchical and graphical aggregations and imposes a modelling process based on the principle of separation of concerns using a layered model. An example of applying the model to a business use case is also reported.