Reiner Anderl

• Prof. Dr.-Ing.
• Professor (Full) at Technical University of Darmstadt

Due to the constant advance of digitalization, ever-increasing amounts of data are being generated. Making decisions based on detailed data analysis promises great potential. Digital platforms play a key role, as their use allows data to be collected, analyzed and used for efficient production in real time. This article will therefore first describ...

Precise and usable Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) becomes more and more important with stricter regulations and politics aiming for sustainable development as well as the market's growing demand for eco-friendly products. Due to many different use-cases and requirements on the assessment quality, enterprises typically create their own...

Selecting a suitable file format for data exchange in additive manufacturing is fundamental when designing these digital process chains. Within the scope of this investigation, alternatives to the de-facto industry standard STL are to be found to overcome the disadvantages of the STL-based digital process chain. Therefore, suitable file formats are...

The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) has been established over the last few years as a new control variable in product design to quantify the sustainable impact of a product. However, the calculation of the PCF is subject to numerous uncertainties and assumptions, which are no longer represented in the stand-alone value. The uncertainties and assumpt...

CO 2 neutrality is an important goal for the upcoming years. It is necessary to ensure that greenhouse gases are emitted as few as possible, particularly for the development of new products. The most important decisions, with impact on the sustainability, are already made by the product designer during the virtual product development phase, such as...

Sustainable product development is one key to avoid overshooting the global production resources and to keep the human impact on the climate under control. Life cycle assessment provides methods and tools to monitor and quantify processes. In reality however, this is a complex procedure with a lack of transparency and standardization. Especially sm...

This paper presents a methodical approach that addresses the challenges of the development process to ensure sustainable product use. Consideration of user behavior in the use phase of products is imperative for efficient support by the technical system already in the development phase. For these and other challenges, the developed approach combine...

The increase in cyber-attacks impacts the performance of organizations in the industrial sector, exploiting the vulnerabilities of networked machines. The increasing digitization and technologies present in the context of Industry 4.0 have led to a rise in investments in innovation and automation. However, there are risks associated with this digit...

Der Cyberspace ist ein ständig wachsendes und modernisiertes Umfeld, das angesichts der Interkonnektivität Chancen für die digitale Transformation bietet. Aus der Integration der physischen Umgebung mit der virtuellen Welt entstehen jedoch auch Herausforderungen, die im Ökosystem der Industrie 4.0 gelöst werden müssen. So führen Konnektivität, Virt...

The carbon footprint is an important indicator of the effects of climate change and thus a new control variable for the design and production of new products. A prerequisite for managing and controlling the carbon footprint is calculating and visualizing it transparently. In this work, a general framework for live estimating the carbon footprint fo...

In today’s virtual product development, huge amounts of data are shared and exchanged between a large number of experts in collaborative and highly complex design tasks. While in these processes designers are oftentimes working with data, which were not created by themselves, they are missing knowledge and transparency about the origin and reliabil...

Due to the ongoing digital transformation, businesses are exposed to work with a dynamic business environment. Traditional 1-to-1 relationships between manufacturers and end customers are transformed into a network of relationships between manufacturers, end customers, software developers, suppliers, and third parties. The network of partners evolv...

Product-service systems offer a hybrid value proposition consisting of product and service solutions. Upgrading traditional product-service systems to smart product-service systems by incorporating individuality and flexibility via data exchange into the value proposition enables addressing a variety of needs of a variety of stakeholders. With the...

Interoperability of Cyber-Physical Systems in the context of Industry 4.0 is currently not explicitly considered during product development leading to compatibility problems during commissioning and usage. This paper addresses the research question of integrating interoperability based on OPC UA Companion Specifications and its building blocks into...

In times of a global climate crisis, the industrial digitalization offers potential to economize on resources. PDM systems are a viable solution to organize product data in a single, central integration platform. These systems enhance the human workforce by managing product data and integrating modern CAx tools during the product development. Indus...

Agile product development methods help to reduce the product development time. The resulting shorter time-to-market ensures a company’s competitiveness. For a time-reduced development process and product lifecycle, the response time to end customer requirements must be decreased as product complexity increases. This requires special methods and too...

Quality assurance is one of the main challenges for additive manufacturing. In-process quality assurance measures and, in particular, part inspection after production are time-consuming and cost-intensive. Most existing quality assurance approaches were developed for traditional manufacturing technologies like milling or turning and have been optim...

Existing approaches to simulation data management refer to the use cases of virtual product development and are not easily transferable to the product utilization phase. Subsequently, there is a need for further development of simulation data management for the application in the Digital Twin. Existing approaches were examined and further developed...

The approaches and visions of Industrie 4.0 developed in recent years enable an increase in productivity and efficiency within production while simultaneously increasing flexibility and autonomy. Decisions are made and processes optimized on the basis of collected data from machines and components. To fully exploit the potential of Industrie 4.0, a...

The increasing digitization and networking of machines and plants has been leading to significant changes in the industrial sector for several years. Particularly in combination with the Internet and other disruptive technologies such as cloud computing, many opportunities and new business models are emerging. This change in industry is subsumed un...

With the increasing relevance of Industry 4.0 and the associated data-based processes, efficient and structured data collection is becoming increasingly important. Currently, sensors are used in a large majority of industries to enable automation processes and to check product quality. The collected data is evaluated directly in the plant to contro...

The versatile concept of the digital twin is being applied in various economic sectors. To exploit its full potential, the digital twin has to be adaptable to changing requirements. In this paper we address the configuration of digital twins with a focus on a flexible and modular simulation chain. Thereby, we utilize the Functional Mock-Up Interfac...

Additive manufacturing has a variety of benefits that make it an exciting alternative to conventional manufacturing processes. For example, it is possible to manufacture customized, small volume parts with complex geometry in a short time to market. This ensures a steadily growing spread of additive manufacturing beyond its use in prototyping. Howe...

Programming of production systems depends on highly specialized personnel and proprietary development environments. This can hinder the evolution towards flexible production. In this paper we present a concept for an intuitive way of human-machine interaction by utilizing the augmented reality technology. This involves a method of programming a mac...

This paper contains criteria for evaluating suitable measurement principles of sensors on existing products. The paper's core is a concept with evaluation criteria for sensor selection and the prototypical implementation of a graphical user interface to select a suitable sensor technology. Furthermore, interfering influences on the measurement, ene...

Der neue Mobilfunkstandard der fünften Generation (5G) bietet weitreichende Potenziale für die deutsche Wirtschaft. Insbesondere die Industrie profitiert durch den Einsatz von 5G. Prozesse können leichter digitalisiert und flexibler gestaltet werden, das Arbeiten wird mobiler und durch den Einsatz von augmentierter und virtueller Realität effizient...

The test processes of cyber-physical systems are time- and cost-intensive. Industry 4.0 provides promising approaches that enables a flexibilization of tests. In this context, this paper addresses the research question on how to virtualize these by using digital twins. The emphasis is on the interaction of simulated hardware and embedded software....

The Department of Computer Integrated Design at the TU Darmstadt deals with new innovative interaction possibilities between workers and Cyber-Physical Systems on the shop floor. In this paper, technologies of Augmented Reality play an essential role. Thus, a digital workflow between product development, planning and production can be established....

As a result of the ongoing digitization, the amount of data generated in companies is continuously increasing. At the same time, IT infrastructures are becoming more sophisticated as the number of software systems used increases and additional databases have to be integrated. In-depth IT knowledge is required to use the acquired data and administer...

In this publication a concept for a self-trained assistance is presented, which places a part, selected by the designer, into an assembly and fixates it with constrains. Therefor all selectable parts are classified by the assistance beforehand. In the process of developing the classification several algorithm were tested and compared regarding spee...

Product designers have access to a choice of manufacturers, who assist with services ranging from manufacturing appropriate design to actual manufacturing, commonly known as Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS). Large-scale enterprises take a leading position in implementing the potentials of MaaS into their business models. However, small and medium-...

Cyber-physical twins are used to provide product-supplementary services for a customer and thus expand the range of services. Sensors in the physical twin record data that is evaluated in the cyber twin and presented to the customer in processed form. In order to gain insights into the current and future behavior of the physical twin, operations ar...

Ongoing advances in modular satellite architectures, coupled with improvements in adaptive manufacturing processes are paving the way for innovations in manufacturing in space and, beyond that, even on-orbit servicing. Current challenges for in-orbit manufacturing of satellites include, in particular, highly reliable, precise and adaptive manufactu...

This chapter describes the various approaches to analyse, quantify and evaluate uncertainty along the phases of the product life cycle. It is based on the previous chapters that introduce a consistent classification of uncertainty and a holistic approach to master the uncertainty of technical systems in mechanical engineering. Here, the following t...

Due to the separation of part design and pre-processing in the industrial context of additive manufacturing, design changes caused by part orientation determination lead to time-consuming iterations. This work provides an approach to determine the optimal part orientation and post-processing surfaces in CAD-Systems, based on native 3D CAD data, to...

Technologies and development in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) are growing rapidly. With the digitalization of industries, the importance of IoT-platforms is increasing steadily. The large number of IoT-platform providers on the market is representing a vast selection of IoT-platforms with all sorts of functionalities. Due to the vast select...

Title page, Contents and Editorial of the special issue on "Uncertainty in the Digital Twin Context". We are pleased to present a special issue of the International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, entitled ‘Uncertainty in the digital twin context’. This special issue is part of an effort to encourage the submission of works dealing with u...

In a globally connected business environment, a variety of stakeholders, aside from the owner of smart products, aim to operate and extract information from the smart product through smart services. The smart services are generated through aggregation of data to operations and information and recombination of these entities. Smart services offer a...

For some years now, digitalization has made its way into all phases of the product life cycle. With the help of the modeling language SysML, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) represents a modern approach in product development. At the same time, the technologies of Industrie 4.0 and digital twin are opening up a new level of efficiency to prod...

Advanced Systems Engineering combines physical products and digital services and models at an early stage of the product development process. Therefore, more and more sensors cover functional and service assurance of a physical product. The representation of the sensor network enables the efficient archiving, management and processing of sensor dat...

The Department of Computer Integrated Design (DiK) at the TU Darmstadt deals with the Digital Twin topic from the perspective of virtual product development. A concept for the architecture of a Digital Twin was developed, which allows the administration of simulation input and output data. The concept was built under consideration of classical CAE...

Organizing manufacturing in dynamic networks instead of inflexible production lines is one of the key aspects of Industry 4.0. This should serve to realize automation and effectiveness to a higher degree than previously achievable. For this modernization, Cyber-Physical Systems should be utilized, where a Digital Twin mirrors the behavior of its Ph...

The high complexity of assemblies and components in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) leads to a high effort in the maintenance of the models and increases the time required for adjustments. Metrics indicating the complexity of a CAD Model can help to reduce it by showing the results of changes. This paper describes a concept to calculate metrics aiming...

Conventional manufacturing processes continuously develop and new manufacturing processes, such as additive manufacturing, establish on the market. The benefits are product- and variant diversity. For employees in production, this means a broad expert knowledge of manufacturing processes and the operation of several partially automated processes si...

Decision-making highly relies on the accuracy and veracity of data. Therefore, redundant data acquisition and fusion has established but lack the ability to handle conflicting data correctly. Especially digital twins, which complement physical products with mathematical models, and contribute to redundancy. Uncertainty propagates through the digita...

The digital twin (DT) incorporates measured data from the physical domain to create as-built or as-manufactured and as-operated product models. To comprehend some implications of creating a DT, this work provides a holistic review of the uncertainty of measured data and of the data flow context where they must be integrated. This work is based on t...

Der Produktentstehungsprozess ist Teil des Produktlebenszyklus und umfasst die Produktlebensphasen Produktplanung, Produktentwicklung und Konstruktion, Arbeitsvorbereitung und Produktherstellung (s. Kap. 1). Kennzeichnend für den Produktentstehungsprozess ist, dass es sich dabei insbesondere auch um einen informationsverarbeitenden Entscheidungspro...

Die zentrale Aufgabe der Informationstechnologie ist die Verarbeitung und Bereitstellung von Daten. Als Daten werden im weitesten Sinne Informationen bezeichnet, die sich durch Zeichen in einem Code darstellen lassen, wobei sich der Begriff Daten auf Zahlen, Text oder auch physikalische Größen beziehen kann. Daten werden meist in Digitalrechnern ve...

Reliability of sensor information in today’s highly automated systems is crucial. Neglected and not quantifiable uncertainties lead to lack of knowledge which results in erroneous interpretation of sensor data. Physical redundancy is an often-used approach to reduce the impact of lack of knowledge but in many cases is infeasible and gives no absolu...

Along the product lifecycle, data obtained in the physical domain are incorporated into the digital one to create models, which constitute a digital twin of a physical object. The acquisition of data from the physical domain involves the measurement of physical magnitudes. Making explicit the uncertainty of the data transferred from the physical do...

The development of smart systems is a multidisciplinary process that is gaining in importance. The share of software integrated in a smart product will continue to increase in the further course of Industrie 4.0 and the increased use of cyber-physical systems. At the same time, a prolonged time-to-market will not be accepted, so that the developmen...

The current age is characterized by the ongoing digitalization, which especially affects the mechanical industry. Together with information and communication technology based on Cyber-Physical Systems, it creates a new stage in the value chain known as Industrie 4.0. In addition, new standardized technologies, such as the Open Platform Communicatio...

The bidirectional connection of physical systems with their digital representations is a research question of recent times. This work presents a model-based connection of digital and physical twins. Therefore, we propose an approach for the bidirectional coupling of the twins using a central information point with integrated information model. Furt...

The transfer project ArePron tends to monitor and effect the resource consumption in production networks with the help of digitalization tools. Furthermore, the successful information transfer in the industry is essential. Therefore, user interfaces for the targeted presentation of information are investigated and a development process for user int...

Kurzfassung Assistenzsysteme zur digitalen Informationsbereitstellung in der Produktion versprechen ein großes Potenzial, Wertschöpfungsprozesse effizienter zu gestalten. Bei der Konzeptionierung solcher Systeme sind sowohl prozessbedingte und datentechnische als auch personalbezogene Aspekte zu berücksichtigen. In diesem Beitrag wird daher ein int...

In times of globalization of industrial production and increasing individualization of products, there is a demand for flexible production systems that combine the virtual and the physical world within Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). As a result, the owners of production plants must decide between acquisition of new systems and upgrade the existing o...

Empfehlungen zur Anpassung der Arbeitswelt an die Anforderungen der Additiven Fertigung: Weitreichende Veränderungen im Zuge der künftigen Erschließung neuer Anwendungsfelder für die Additive Fertigung sind insbesondere für die Arbeitswelt zu erwarten. Neue Technologien beeinflussen die Arbeitswelt in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Sie erfordern entsprechen...

Digitale Zwillinge verbinden und erweitern die bisherigen digitalen Modelle in der Entwicklung mit den neuartigen Datenströmen des operativen Betriebs von Produkten, Maschinen und Dienstleistungen. Digitale Zwillinge werden die Produktentstehung nachhaltig verändern und neue Geschäfts- und Wertschöpfungsmodelle ermöglichen. (Read More: https://www....

Kurzfassung Der neue Begriff „Cyber-Physische Zwillinge“ beschreibt die gleichzeitige Entwicklung der Komponenten, Cyber Zwilling (virtuell) und Physischer Zwilling (real), sowie ihrer bi-direktionalen Wechselwirkung. Cyber-Physische Zwillinge unterscheiden sich vom Digitalen Zwilling durch das Angebot von Services zum Beispiel Handlungsempfehlunge...

As well as promising faster and more efficient manufacturing processes, digitally connected industrial production in the context of Industrie 4.0 also provides opportunities to design and implement new business models. Companies need to be extremely agile, flexible and good at learning in order to adapt dynamically to a disruptive environment. In a...

Die digital vernetzte industrielle Produktion im Kontext der Industrie 4.0 verspricht nicht nur schnellere und effizientere Fertigungsprozesse, sondern bringt auch das Potenzial zur Konzeption und Implementierung neuer Geschäftsmodelle mit sich. Ein hohes Maß an Agilität, Flexibilität und Lernfähigkeit ist dabei für Unternehmen essenziell, um sich...

Digital Twins enable the analysis of systems under real world conditions using multiphysics models, sensors and bidirectional data connections between the digital and its physical twin. At the Research Lab of the Department of Computer Integrated Design (DiK) of Technische Universität Darmstadt, a Digital Twin demonstrator was developed that enable...

The connection between sensors, systems and machines in the production environment enables new concepts to increase quality or flexibility. Integrated sensors can measure machine performance parameters. The measurements serve for monitoring of process stability and quality or for affecting production planning through a new agile routing. To realize...

A production facility enables the collecting of many different data with existing machinery. One reason for this are modern machines, which are usually equipped with cyber-physical-systems (CPS). CPS are the basis of Industry 4.0 and enable machines to collect and transfer data by using sensors and a communication interface. The IoT-platform can vi...

The Digital Twin is the following development of ongoing improvements in communicational technologies, decreasing hardware costs and the need for products with decentralized decision-making abilities. In order to improve the qualities of decisions, there is the requirement for an easy, reliable way to transport data between Digital Twins, even if t...

Reliability of sensor information in today's highly automated systems is crucial. Neglected and not quantifiable uncertainties lead to lack of knowledge which results in erroneous interpretation of sensor data. Physical redundancy is an often-used approach to reduce the impact of lack of knowledge but in many cases is infeasible and gives no absolu...

The 4th industrial revolution poses new challenges for industrial software and in particular for the control software of production machines. In order to master the transformation, the machine software must be made more flexible and upgradable. The challenge is that any modification of the software can lead to critical errors. In order to meet the...

Software has become an indispensable part of industrial production and thus influences the life cycle of manufacturing systems, as many of these systems have to be replaced or evolved due to changing requirements. Software adaptation through continuous evolution extends the service time of these systems and thus saves valuable resources. In this pa...

Despite the advances of the digitalization, predictions of the condition of components cannot be made accurately. During the production process, data is collected and connected with a certain component. A further utilization does not take place in most cases. Cyber-physical twins enable a customized acquisition of real-time data within the whole pr...

The digital twin (DT) incorporates measured data from the physical domain to create as-built or as-manufactured and as-operated product models. To comprehend some implications of creating a DT, this work provides a holistic review of the uncertainty of measured data and of the data flow context where they must be integrated. This work is based on t...

Aiming at the rapid response of mega constellation of satellites to cover the increasing demand for Earth observation and communication, in-orbit manufacturing is a promising approach. Driven by the NewSpace, which is leading a paradigm change in the space industry, the project Space Factory 4.0 has been founded to establish new processes and techn...