Model-driven digital thread platform for cyber-physical systems

The latest advancements in Cyber-Physical Systems revolve around the increased adoption of cutting edge technologies, such as the Internet of Things, edge computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics. The goal is to enhance real-time interaction between digital and physical entities and enhance their predictive capabilities. The challenge of addressing requirements related to integration and achieving interoperability within the space of Industry 4.0 requires a platform approach to address the heterogeneity in the system of systems, storage capabilities, devices and the ecosystem involved. Conventional approaches are limited in their scope covering only the individual aspects and often rely on bespoke glue code that is difficult to produce and even harder to maintain. This can result in poor code quality with an overhead of increased maintenance requirements, e.g., resources, time and cost, and reduction in agility. To overcome these challenges, a model-driven Digital Thread Platform for CPS is proposed that offers a baseline architecture and systematizes the integration methodology through a layered Domain Specific Languages approach. This approach covers the integration space domain by domain, technology by technology and platform by platform; leading towards a generalizable and highly reusable solution. Altogether, this work presents the successful integration of 19 independent technologies in two distinct Low-code development environments with the production of 26 processes and pipelines and the definition of 62 SIBs in 25 distinct DSLs. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been demonstrated through use cases, examples, and applications across multiple domains. The proposed platform brings cohesiveness to the involved heterogeneous systems and platforms, making them easier to understand, develop, and maintain. Furthermore, it also empowers domain experts to actively participate in the development cycle. There has been a significant reduction in both the new integrations and the development efforts, and over time, the extent of reuse will continue to grow, particularly for the most standard applications.