Towards an Engineering Workflow Management System for Asset Administration Shells using BPMN

2025-07-10

AI Summary

To address the insufficient security and scalability of engineering workflow automation and cross-organizational collaboration in Industry 4.0, this paper proposes an engineering workflow management approach integrating Asset Administration Shells (AAS) with BPMN. We innovatively design a distributed, write-on-copy AAS infrastructure to ensure data consistency and access security, and develop a lightweight workflow engine prototype supporting native AAS operations, enabling automatic mapping and execution of BPMN processes onto AAS interactions. This method unifies digital twin representation, asset modeling, and business process logic, thereby significantly enhancing standardization of engineering data exchange, end-to-end process traceability, and multi-stakeholder collaboration efficiency. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the system’s feasibility for secure inter-organizational coordination and its horizontal scalability across heterogeneous industrial environments.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Coordination and Collaboration
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Scalability, Parallel & Distributed Systems

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications
• Semantics and Knowledge: Scalable techniques for the creation, curation, publication, maintenance, and consumption of large, Web-based, structured, reusable, knowledge graphs and ontologies
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

The integration of Industry 4.0 technologies into engineering workflows is an essential step toward automating and optimizing plant and process engineering processes. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) serves as a key enabler for creating interoperable Digital Twins that facilitate engineering data exchange and automation. This paper explores the use of AAS within engineering workflows, particularly in combination with Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) to define structured and automated processes. We propose a distributed AAS copy-on-write infrastructure that enhances security and scalability while enabling seamless cross organizational collaboration. We also introduce a workflow management prototype automating AAS operations and engineering workflows, improving efficiency and traceability.

Problem

• Integrate Industry 4.0 technologies into engineering workflows
• Enhance security and scalability of Asset Administration Shells
• Automate AAS operations and engineering workflows efficiently

Innovation

• AAS with BPMN for structured workflows
• Distributed copy-on-write AAS infrastructure
• Workflow management prototype automates operations