Use of Asset Administration Shell for Monitoring and Control of Industrial Processes in Legacy Systems

Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing industrial processes by promoting automation and digitalization across various sectors. However, it is some times necessary to replace legacy systems with those more suited to this new reality, which demands resources that, in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises, pose a challenge for this transition. This study investigates the application of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) for monitoring and controlling industrial processes, using an Level, Flow, Pressure, and Temperature (NVPT) test bench as an example of a legacy system. The Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) was adopted to structure the system architecture. Virtualization was carried out using three AASs: two passive ones, responsible for data acquisition, and one reactive one, in charge of temperature and level control. The AASs were modeled using the AASX Package Explorer and implemented in Python using the Opua asyncio library. Execution was performed on a Raspberry Pi to explore the benefits of edge computing. The solution enabled digitalization of the test bench, allowing remote monitoring and automated control of the system variables. The tests demonstrated the feasibility of the method, highlighting its applicability in integrating legacy systems into Industry 4.0, in an economical and efficient manner.