Semantic microservice framework for digital twins

Abstract

Digital Twins (DT) in industrial cyber-physical systems are the key enabling technology for Industry 4.0. Services are an essential part of almost every DT concept, but their interaction is usually implementation-specific since no common guidelines are available. This work identifies some fundamental requirements for a DT service framework based on applications identified in corresponding literature. Based on these requirements, a service framework architecture is proposed. The architecture utilizes Semantic Web technology and a workflow engine for service orchestration to support the fulfilment of the identified requirements. As a case study for sensor data evaluation of an industrial process, a proof-of-concept implementation is presented, showing the feasibility and suitability of the proposed DT service framework architecture.