Systematic Comparison of Software Agents and Digital Twins: Differences, Similarities, and Synergies in Industrial Production

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Reinpold, Lasse Matthias, Wagner, Lukas Peter, Gehlhoff, Felix, Ramonat, Malte, Kilthau, Maximilian, Gill, Milapji Singh, Reif, Jonathan Tobias, Henkel, Vincent, Scholz, Lena, Fay, Alexander
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Reinpold, Lasse Matthias
Wagner, Lukas Peter
Gehlhoff, Felix
Ramonat, Malte
Kilthau, Maximilian
Gill, Milapji Singh
Reif, Jonathan Tobias
Henkel, Vincent
Scholz, Lena
Fay, Alexander
author_facet Reinpold, Lasse Matthias
Wagner, Lukas Peter
Gehlhoff, Felix
Ramonat, Malte
Kilthau, Maximilian
Gill, Milapji Singh
Reif, Jonathan Tobias
Henkel, Vincent
Scholz, Lena
Fay, Alexander
contents To achieve a highly agile and flexible production, it is envisioned that industrial production systems gradually become more decentralized, interconnected, and intelligent. Within this vision, production assets collaborate with each other, exhibiting a high degree of autonomy. Furthermore, knowledge about individual production assets is readily available throughout their entire life-cycles. To realize this vision, adequate use of information technology is required. Two commonly applied software paradigms in this context are Software Agents (referred to as Agents) and Digital Twins (DTs). This work presents a systematic comparison of Agents and DTs in industrial applications. The goal of the study is to determine the differences, similarities, and potential synergies between the two paradigms. The comparison is based on the purposes for which Agents and DTs are applied, the properties and capabilities exhibited by these software paradigms, and how they can be allocated within the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0. The comparison reveals that Agents are commonly employed in the collaborative planning and execution of production processes, while DTs typically play a more passive role in monitoring production resources and processing information. Although these observations imply characteristic sets of capabilities and properties for both Agents and DTs, a clear and definitive distinction between the two paradigms cannot be made. Instead, the analysis indicates that production assets utilizing a combination of Agents and DTs would demonstrate high degrees of intelligence, autonomy, sociability, and fidelity. To achieve this, further standardization is required, particularly in the field of DTs.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_08421
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Systematic Comparison of Software Agents and Digital Twins: Differences, Similarities, and Synergies in Industrial Production
Reinpold, Lasse Matthias
Wagner, Lukas Peter
Gehlhoff, Felix
Ramonat, Malte
Kilthau, Maximilian
Gill, Milapji Singh
Reif, Jonathan Tobias
Henkel, Vincent
Scholz, Lena
Fay, Alexander
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
To achieve a highly agile and flexible production, it is envisioned that industrial production systems gradually become more decentralized, interconnected, and intelligent. Within this vision, production assets collaborate with each other, exhibiting a high degree of autonomy. Furthermore, knowledge about individual production assets is readily available throughout their entire life-cycles. To realize this vision, adequate use of information technology is required. Two commonly applied software paradigms in this context are Software Agents (referred to as Agents) and Digital Twins (DTs). This work presents a systematic comparison of Agents and DTs in industrial applications. The goal of the study is to determine the differences, similarities, and potential synergies between the two paradigms. The comparison is based on the purposes for which Agents and DTs are applied, the properties and capabilities exhibited by these software paradigms, and how they can be allocated within the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0. The comparison reveals that Agents are commonly employed in the collaborative planning and execution of production processes, while DTs typically play a more passive role in monitoring production resources and processing information. Although these observations imply characteristic sets of capabilities and properties for both Agents and DTs, a clear and definitive distinction between the two paradigms cannot be made. Instead, the analysis indicates that production assets utilizing a combination of Agents and DTs would demonstrate high degrees of intelligence, autonomy, sociability, and fidelity. To achieve this, further standardization is required, particularly in the field of DTs.
title Systematic Comparison of Software Agents and Digital Twins: Differences, Similarities, and Synergies in Industrial Production
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.08421