A Multi-Stakeholder Digital Product Passport Based on the Asset Administration Shell

Abstract

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a vital enabler of the circular economy. However, creating interoperability among digital representations of products/assets and preserving privacy are core challenges for a successful implementation of the DPP. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS), by offering a consistent metamodel and application programming interface, helps interested parties to communicate via such a standard digital representation. In this paper, we present our Cloud-based system, which enables multiple stakeholders to build their own AAS. With the help of a user interface, different stakeholders can interact with existing AASs and add their own information based on existing templates. In earlier work on the AAS, the manufacturing phase of a product was in the focus. To both leverage the full potential of the AAS and to make the circular economy work, however, it is crucial to take later lifecycle phases and their related stakeholders equally into account. Our work therefore strongly emphasizes a multi-stakeholder perspective on the AAS and hence, the DPP. We demonstrate how the DPP is beneficial for recycling an asset in a real-world use-case. Our solution also addresses concerns about data privacy by implementing role-based access authorization constraints. We also offer the capability to deploy third-party services within our Cloud-based infrastructure.