The content of this OPC UA Companion Specification is based on the asset administration shell for pumps and vacuum pumps. The asset administration shell and its submodels were modeled to describe the whole life cycle of a Pump.

The organization Plattform Industrie 4.0 published the specification Details [2] of the Asset Administration Shell to define the concept and metamodel for asset administration shells. The specification describes every aspect of asset administration shells in detail and should be used for reference purposes.

Figure 6 shows an abstract example on the composition of an I4.0 component and the content of an asset administration shell.

Figure 6 – Structure of an Asset Administration Shell

An asset administration shell is defined by the Plattform Industrie 4.0 organization as a “standardized digital representation of the asset, corner stone of the interoperability between the applications managing the manufacturing systems. It identifies the Administration Shell and the assets represented by it, holds digital models of various aspects (submodels) and describes technical functionality exposed by the Administration Shell or respective assets. ”

The content of an asset administration shells consists of submodels and properties. “Each submodel refers to a well-defined domain or subject matter. Submodels can become standardized and thus become submodels templates.”

This OPC UA Companion Specification transfers the contents of the asset administration shell for pumps and vacuum pumps into an OPC UA model by defining generic and specific ObjectTypes, VariableTypes and DataTypes. In general, submodels are modeled as subtypes of the 2:FunctionalGroupType of OPC 10000-100. The pump, i.e. the asset administration shell, is modeled as a subtype of the 2:TopologyElementType of OPC 10000-100.

For more information about the asset administration shell metamodel, it is recommended to consult the Details of the Asset Administration Shell specification [2].