Smart tags are dynamic data carriers that enable the user to access updated lifecycle data based on changes in the environmental conditions around the item that contains the tag. See more details in a previous blog post.
The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a standardized digital representation of an asset, widely used in Industry 4.0 for structuring, exchanging, and integrating information about physical and digital assets. For smart tag modeling, AAS provides a robust, interoperable framework that enables the smart tag to function as an independent digital entity, a source of measurement data, and a bridge to broader product lifecycle and dataspace applications.
In the DigInTraCE project, mapping the smart tag ontology to the AAS was seen to provide several benefits. Becoming the de facto standard for digital twins in industrial contexts, AAS fosters interoperability ensuring that smart tag data can be integrated with other systems, tools, and data spaces. AAS also supports modularity, because it is built around the concept of submodels, allowing to represent different aspects of the smart tag (identification, capabilities, observations, links to DPP, etc.) in a modular and extensible way. Further, several projects and industrial pilots have successfully coupled AAS with dataspace architecture (e.g., GAIA-X, IDS), demonstrating practical interoperability between digital twins and federated data sharing environments.
Based on the developed smart tag ontology a progressive web application (PWA) was developed in the DigInTraCE project to read the smart tags as part of a digital product passport. The components of the PWA include (i) smart tag user interface (UI) as a frontend, (ii) smart tag backend, (iii) optional EU compliant dataspaces with connectors, and (iv) AAS server.
A detailed description of the AAS and PWA can be found in the following video:
