Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE
Autonomous systems – digital twin
The number of control and regulating tasks performed by embedded systems is huge, which is one of the reasons why autonomous systems face great challenges. In order to solve given tasks, embedded systems decide at runtime with which other systems they will form systems of systems and in which they will participate only temporarily. As soon as systems dynamically expand their capabilities by integrating third-party components, they are referred to as ecosystems. To be part of these, autonomous systems need more than just data, for the challenges lie in the combination of services.
The solution is offered by Digital Twins as a universally deployable communication interface, which must work both across devices and across manufacturers. Digital Twins must be able to describe on their own both themselves and the data and services offered. They must also be capable of identifying and selecting the required services of other Digital Twins and of using these to create their own networks. To make this possible, more use must be made of task-oriented interfaces, which, for example, define the objective of an action, but not how it is to be carried out.
Fraunhofer IESE is active in several areas to develop the concept of the Digital Twins. Together with 14 other partners from the field of production technology, the institute is developing concepts and solutions in the project BaSys 4.0 to realize Digital Twins as virtual middleware for digital production.