System and method for interoperable communication of an automation system component with multiple information sources

A computer system for interoperable data exchange between a plurality of information systems via a digital representation service associated with a digital representation of a physical device with each information system being at least one of an information source and an information consumer regarding data associated with the physical device, the digital representation being a virtual entity replicating data of the physical device and data associated with the device life cycle, the system comprising:

• at least one digital representation service for the physical device, the at least one digital representation service comprising:
• an interface configured to receive a request for device related data;
• a management module configured to generate and update the digital representation of the device, the digital representation being configured to store a plurality of data models with each stored data model being associated with a particular information system;
• and
• a semantic relations library storing semantic relations between model element types from stored data models of different information systems, wherein each stored data model provides data associated with the device life cycle, and wherein each model element type is derived from a corresponding stored data model of the management module,
• wherein each digital representation service of the at least one digital representation service is configured to:
• generate a mapping between model elements of data models associated with at least two different information systems via the semantic relationships as defined in the semantic relations library as a generated mapping;
• and
• in response to the request, execute data exchange between at least two information systems in accordance with the generated mapping.