Terms, Definitions and Abbreviations

Please note: the definitions of terms are only valid in a certain context. This glossary applies only within the context of this document.

Note 1 to entry: an application can be distributed among resources and may communicate with other applications.

Note 1 to entry: an asset can be single entity, a collection of entities, an assembly of entities or a composition of entities.

EXAMPLE 1: examples for physical entities are equipment, raw material, parts components and pieces, supplies, consumables, physical products, and waste.

EXAMPLE 2: software is an example of a digital asset.

EXAMPLE 3: a software license is an example of an intangible asset.

Note 1 to entry: Asset Administration Shell and Administration Shell are used synonymously.

Note 1 to entry: capabilities can be orchestrated and structured hierarchically.

Note 2 to entry: capabilities can be made executable via services.

Note 3 to entry: the impact manifests itself in a measurable effect within the physical world.

EXAMPLE 1: examples of information are properties (e.g. maximum temperature), actual parameters (e.g. actual velocity), events (e.g. notification of status change), schematics (electrical), and visualization information (2D and 3D drawings).

EXAMPLE 2: examples of services are asset services (for example providing the history of the configuration data or providing the actual velocity) and asset related services (for example providing a simulation).

EXAMPLE 3: examples of viewpoints are mechanical, electrical, or commercial characteristics.

Note 1 to entry: in this context, the entity in the definition of digital representation is typically an asset.

Note 1 to entry: there are specific identifiers, e.g. UUID Universal unique identifier, IEC 15418 (GS1).

Note 1 to entry: an individual entity of a type, for example a device, is obtained by defining specific property values.

Note 2 to entry: in an object-oriented view, an instance denotes an object of a class (of a type).

EXAMPLE 1: examples of instance assets are material, a product, a part, a device, a machine, software, a control system, or a production system.

Note 1 to entry: the term method is synonymous to operation.

Note 2 to entry: an operation has a name and a list of parameters [ISO 19119:2005, 4.1.3].

Note 1 to entry: the concept of type and instance applies to properties.

Note 2 to entry: this definition applies to properties as described in IEC 61360/ ISO 13584-42.

Note 3 to entry: the property types are defined in dictionaries (like IEC component data dictionary or ECLASS), they do not have a value. The property type is also called data element type in some standards.

Note 4 to entry: the property instances have a value and are provided by the manufacturers. A property instance is also called property-value pair in certain standards.

Note 5 to entry: properties include nominal value, actual value, runtime variables, measurement values, etc.

Note 6 to entry: a property describes one characteristic of a given object.

Note 7 to entry: a property can have attributes such as code, version, and revision.

Note 8 to entry: the specification of a property can include predefined choices of values.

Note 1 to entry: qualifiers can have associated values.

Note 1 to entry: object can be anything that has a type.

Note 1 to entry: the set of instance assets may exist or may not exist.

EXAMPLE: Examples of type assets are type of material, a product type, a type of a part, a device type, a machine type, a type of software, a type of control system, a type of production system.