An Agent-based Realisation for a continuous Model Adaption Approach in intelligent Digital Twins

Abstract: The trend in industrial automation is towards networking, intelligence and autonomy. Digital Twins, which serve as virtual representations, are becoming increasingly important in this context. The Digital Twin of a modular production system contains many different models that are mostly created for specific applications and fulfil different requirements. Especially simulation models, which are created in the development phase, can be used during the operational phase for applications such as prognosis or operation-parallel simulation. Due to the high heterogeneity of the model landscape in the context of a modular production system, the plant operator is faced with the challenge of adapting the models in order to ensure an application-oriented realism in the event of changes to the asset and its environment or the addition of applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a concept for the continuous model adaption in the Digital Twin of a modular production system during the operational phase. The benefits are then demonstrated by an application scenario and an agent-based realisation.