Overview of Industry 4.0 trends and technologies in 2023. The latest evolution in the industry, dubbed “Industry 4.0”, is to improve automated production through machine learning and intelligent technologies. The 4th Industrial Revolution brought the manufacturing process into an era where computers and automated machines enabled factories and factories to produce products on a massive scale. While there are industries and industries where the human factor is still important, many of the latest Industry 4.0 trends make it easier to create products without human intervention.
Already, the growing links between man and machine, machine and man, are affecting production systems and processes all over the world. Industry 4.0 trends and technologies are fundamental to the creation of connected manufacturing focused on smart and autonomous factories. Industry 4.0 can reduce manufacturing costs by 10-30%, logistics costs by 10-30% and quality management costs by 10-20%.
Industry 4.0 trends and technologies today
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in devices and processes is a major trend in Industry 4.0. New companies are increasingly developing wearable solutions for industrial workspaces to keep the manufacturing process safe and efficient. Data collection through the adoption of cloud and edge computing, as well as the development of cybersecurity solutions, allows companies to create the building blocks for smart factories.
Advanced robotic solutions, including autonomous mobile robots, cobots, and group robotics, as well as robot software development, are also an important part of Industry 4.0 trends.
Artificial Intelligence in Industry 4.0
AI and machine learning are driving innovation across industries and functional areas. AI hardware and new algorithms are being developed to optimize existing systems and meet new manufacturing challenges. Industry 4.0 factories are integrating AI into their manufacturing systems and processes. Advanced AI enables predictive maintenance, cognitive computing, collective intelligence, context-aware computing, smart machines, hardware accelerators, and generative design. All these technologies are pushing the industry to move towards fully automated production.
AI in Industry 4.0 is now considered separate from collaborative robots. AI is beginning to be seen as another important component of Industry 4.0. AI is the use of computer programs to perform complex tasks. These programs are installed on robots of any type (whether sensitive or collaborative) to perform tasks or work, which gives the robots the ability to adapt to the situation faster and more efficiently. AI helps robots learn autonomously, act logically, and communicate with each other.
The use of collaborating robots with the simultaneous application of AI corresponds to a fundamental tool for the optimal and efficient operation of production processes in a smart industry or smart factories. Simulation and AI methods have provided an improved solution for the trajectory of the robot arm, which saves 5% of the time, which means a significant increase in productivity.
Thanks to sensors installed in production systems, AI can capture the energy consumption of individual machines, analyze maintenance cycles and optimize them in the next step. It can also indicate a malfunction of the working data. As the amount of data increases, the system optimizes its efficiency and makes more accurate predictions.
AI-based Industry 4.0 startups
Mechanica AI is a Dutch startup that offers industrial-grade AI for industrial operations. This technology allows manufacturers to benefit from limited or imperfect datasets. They incorporated industry knowledge into the AI system to ensure optimal performance. The solution allows the use of imperfect production data for autonomous decision-making and process control. In addition, these AI products are integrating with legacy assets, allowing more factories to adopt technology solutions.
Oqton – AI-driven data integration
American startup Oqton is developing FactoryOS, an AI-based platform for integrating manufacturing system data to optimize factory production and output. Machines, systems, and data from manufacturing plants are typically stored as independent data stores, making it difficult to extract actual value from them. The cloud platform integrates and uses data from all stages of the industrial ecosystem, such as design, production, and supply chain. Over time, the AI continuously learns from these inputs to generate important insights to improve overall performance.
Human Physical and Cognitive Enhancement and Augmented Reality
The physical and cognitive enhancement of humans is another major trend of Industry 4.0. The limits of humans are being expanded with technologies such as wearables and exoskeletons. In addition, industrial mobile devices, natural and intuitive user interfaces, and portable machine control screens make this technology easy to use.
XR technologies such as mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are already being used in Industry 4.0, from research and development (R&D) to full-scale manufacturing and post-production processes. This multilateral paradigm is changing the way industrial production systems function. The nature of human-machine interaction is increasingly leaning towards machine-controlled workers.
Industry 4.0 Startups in People Improvement and Virtual Manufacturing
Startup ULS Robotics – exoskeleton technology platform
ULS Robotics is a Chinese startup developing an exoskeleton technology platform. Many shop floor workers experience fatigue, weakness, and other physical discomforts due to the repetitive and monotonous nature of their tasks. The use of exoskeletons on the shop floor helps workers perform their tasks efficiently by reducing or eliminating any physical strain. Exoskeletons typically provide waist, upper limb (4 DOF), and lower limb (12 DOF) support.
VirtuFab – Virtual Manufacturing
US-based startup VirtuFab is developing an enterprise-grade virtual reality tool designed to assist manufacturing and manufacturing teams in the product design and pre-rendering process. Product design requires close collaboration between team members and extends to interdisciplinary team coordination. The use of virtual reality for this process provides direct access to projects regardless of location. Virtufab offers a virtual customizable tool belt that provides remote collaboration capabilities.
Edge, fog, and cloud computing in Industry 4.0
The sheer volume of data generated by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is driving the adoption of edge, fog, and cloud computing capabilities in Industry 4.0. Custom hardware and software solutions such as connected clouds, distributed clouds, distributed computing and storage, hybrid computing, low-code development platforms, microservices, mobile computing, and multi-access edge computing are driving this Industry 4.0 trend.
Edge startup – AI-powered edge computing
Belgian startup Edgise provides hardware design as a service for edge computing applications. The startup is reducing response time by moving AI from the cloud to the edge. The optimal performance of industrial systems depends on the efficient execution of the algorithm present in the machines. Edge computing power, along with IIoT, significantly increases the speed, safety, and efficiency of the manufacturing process by accelerating the work of algorithms. The company provides support for the entire development cycle of products for peripheral computing.
Atrio – hybrid cloud computing
American startup Atrio offers Atrio Hybrid Composable Cloud – a single software-defined computing platform. The power of cloud computing shortens production cycle times by providing a quick understanding of all production steps. Created by Atrio, the platform offers a cloud-agnostic single computing network that integrates common infrastructure and cloud services to create, manage and operate hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Networking and Connectivity in Industry 4.0
Networking and connectivity are one of the main driving forces in the implementation of Industry 4.0. A number of technological developments such as cloud edge, gigabit Ethernet, time-sensitive networks, low power wide area networks (LPWAN), 5G, machine-to-machine communication (M2M), real-time deterministic Ethernet, time-sensitive networks (TSN), ubiquitous radio access, unified IoT fabric, and zero-touch networks are pushing factories to adopt IIoT to transform into Industry 4.0 facilities.
These technologies are constantly improving machine-to-machine and human-machine interaction, as well as data transmission. As a result, innovations in this area increase speed, increase security, and efficiency, and reduce the cost of connecting to the network.
BehrTech Startup – Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)
BehrTech is a Canadian startup developing MIOTY, an LPWAN solution standardized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute for IIoT. LPWAN solutions are ideal for connecting a large number of machines in industrial complexes, as they have sufficient range and low implementation costs. BehrTech uses Fraunhofer’s proprietary Telegram splitting protocol, in which a message is split into several smaller subpackets and sent at different times and frequencies. It provides interference immunity, wide scalability, wide coverage, and ultra-low power consumption.
Coretigo Startup – IIoT Wireless
The Israeli startup Coretigo offers an IIoT wireless service based on the IO-Link Wireless standard. IO-link is a communication protocol that works point-to-point and is usually wired. The design of IO-Link Wireless allows it to work with a large number of devices while maintaining low latency and high reliability. Coretigo helps in wireless communication between sensors, actuators, and controllers.
Advanced Robotics in Industry 4.0
Advances in robotics are making Industry 4.0 processes faster, more efficient, and safer. The most prominent robotic technologies affecting manufacturing include autonomous robots, collaborative robots (cobots), collaborative autonomous mobile robots, humanoids, mobile robots, cloud robotics, APIs, pick-and-place robots, and robot swarms. The use of robots provides greater precision and maneuverability while improving the capabilities of rapidly evolving customizable robots. Robots also free up time for humans to focus on other non-repetitive or important tasks.
Startup Giga Automata – Cobots
Bulgarian startup Giga Automata offers the Animoto cobot. Cobots increase the efficiency of human tasks because they are designed to work together with humans. Cobots tend to be easy to set up, flexible, and inexpensive compared to other robots. Animoto has 6 degrees of freedom with an accuracy of 0.1 mm and transports up to 5 kg of cargo at a distance of up to 1 meter at a speed of up to 2 m/s.
Sesto Robotics – autonomous mobile robots
Singapore-based startup Sesto Robotics offers the SESTO Element, a multipurpose autonomous mobile robot. Autonomous robots are essential for industrial automation facilities and allow people to focus on higher-level tasks such as production control. The compact mobile platform SESTO Element is configured with various types of top modules and depends on the nature of the tasks. The company also offers SESTO Prime, an autonomous mobile robot equipped with a 7-axis robotic arm.
“Internet of Everything” in the industry
Real-time machine-machine, human-machine, and human-human relationships together constitute the Internet of Everything in manufacturing. It includes IIoT, Internet of Skills, Internet of Services, Internet of Systems, and Internet of Things on the shop floor. The Internet of Everything integrates real-time data, machine intelligence, and human skills, leading to faster, more efficient, and cost-effective manufacturing processes. The interoperability and unified structure of the Internet of Things are critical to the smooth adoption of Industry 4.0 objects.
Cumulus Startup – Internet of Industrial Services
Cumulus is a US-based startup developing a web-based tool-driven operations and service management platform. The platform aims to replace time-consuming paper planning, execution, and maintenance reporting. The use of intelligent connected tools along with their platform results in a transparent and traceable record of all maintenance activities. This helps reduce quality control costs and improve overall productivity.
Hubbox – Industrial Remote Connectivity
Turkish startup Hubbox provides a secure industrial remote connectivity device for manufacturing companies. Nowadays, machines are still connected by a complex network of wires. Hubbox provides wireless connectivity between machines, creating an IoT solution on the shop floor. The device comes with WAN, LAN, and WiFi interfaces and uses secure SSL certificates and advanced encryption methods. The device is also capable of interacting with ERP and creating ad hoc M2M networks.
Big Data and Analytics in Industry 4.0
The scale of industrial data collection is eventually allowing factories to move into Industry 4.0 facilities. Big data is complex and only valuable if it is collected, stored, and analyzed quickly and economically. Improvements in the use of data to gain valuable insights into manufacturing systems and the availability of immediate, real-time data enable prescriptive and predictive analytics at different levels of a company’s manufacturing plants.
Qsee Startup – Predictive Analytics
Qsee is an Israeli startup that develops prescriptive and predictive analytics tools for manufacturers. The software is able to predict product quality results for each production batch and even for individual products. Downtime results in unnecessary losses for manufacturing firms in both money and time. Qsee performs root cause analysis on production units to uncover hidden causes of poor performance and sends alerts to prevent downtime.
Curiosity Startup – Knowledge Extraction Tools
German startup Curiosity offers software platforms for extracting knowledge from structured and unstructured data. The platform integrates with existing data infrastructure and provides accessible knowledge to users in any industrial environment. Problems with data integration in manufacturing companies arise from a large number of technical terms, documents, and abbreviations. Curiosity combines all relevant data sources into a knowledge diagram, which later helps in building custom search and exploration tools.
Industry 4.0 and hybrid, additive manufacturing
Manufacturers are constantly looking for new technologies to meet all aspects of the growing market demand. Additive manufacturing, which began as a prototyping method, is revolutionizing and decentralizing manufacturing. Hybrid manufacturing aims to integrate both additive and subtractive manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing is an advanced technology that can help with new products, new business models, and supply chains. The set of technologies that allow the “3D printing” of physical objects constitutes the term “additive manufacturing”. Unique products can be made without the usual excesses, which makes this a big advantage.
Advances in materials science and technology, such as stereolithography and metal 3D printing, make it easy to fabricate complex designs and complex components. Additive manufacturing makes customizable and sustainable cloud manufacturing a reality.
Startup AMBOTS – Autonomous Additive Manufacturing
American startup AMBOTS is developing an autonomous solution for additive manufacturing using swarm robots. Digital projects are broken down into smaller tasks that are performed by several different types of robots. At present, the speed of additive manufacturing is limited by the size of the product. AMBOTS eliminates this bottleneck by using a proprietary chunk-based 3D printing method.
Startup Exaddon – micrometric metal 3D printing
Exaddon is a Swiss startup developing the CERES metal additive manufacturing system that prints at the micrometer scale. Fabrication of micrometer-sized components is challenging using traditional manufacturing techniques such as lithography. CERES uses electrochemical technology to achieve micro-manufacturing by running the process at room temperature and also eliminating post-processing. The system prints complex metal objects ranging in size from 1 micrometer to 1000 micrometers.
Cybersecurity, transparency, and privacy
The flow of information due to connectivity in Industry 4.0 raises concerns about security, transparency, and privacy. As manufacturing methods become more personalized and customizable, the data management practices applied outside and inside the shop floor will have a huge impact on a company’s attractiveness. The transmission and processing of sensitive industrial data must be secure to avoid cyber attacks on critical industrial facilities.
Digital ethics and privacy, privacy enhancement technologies, self-adapting security, zero-trust security, end-to-end communication security, DevSecOps, and blockchain are some of the new developments in this field. The focus on cybersecurity must be balanced with transparency and privacy.
Alias Robotics – Robotic Immune System
Spanish startup Alias Robotics is developing a robotic immune system (RIS), an endpoint protection platform for robots. This solution provides protection against malware for robots and their components. The modular architecture of RIS provides flexibility and adaptability to the system and is suitable for various robots. The company also offers a secure data logger for investigating cyberattacks or robotic outages. The use of industrial robots at all stages of production requires innovations such as RIS.
Adolus – secure software updates
Industry 4.0 uses smart connected devices from multiple vendors. These devices need to be kept up to date with the latest software, firmware, and configuration files. Adolus is a Canadian startup offering a secure process for updating embedded devices.
Cybercriminals can potentially interfere with the update process and compromise industrial facilities by tricking personnel into installing infected files. Adolus is developing FACT, which solves this problem by working with hardware vendors to collect unique file fingerprints and compare those fingerprints with those obtained by manufacturers. FACT provides an assessment of reliability during installation as well as visibility into upgrade processes on critical systems.
Digital twin technology in Industry 4.0
Digital twin technology creates virtual models of industrial assets by combining dynamic sensor data and real-time visualizations. Some of the promising use cases for digital twins include model-driven design, virtual prototyping, virtual system validation, throughput optimization, and evolutionary design. The use of digital twins is driving Industry 4.0 towards hyper-automation. Digital twins provide valuable information about all stages of the manufacturing process.
Digital twin startups
Startup Gemius – industrial twin
The American startup Gemius is developing a digital twin solution for various industrial processes. This solution allows manufacturing plants to standardize careful operation and maintenance to optimize productivity. The physically constrained artificial intelligence that drives the Gemius digital twin provides self-optimizing design and operational intelligence. The Digital Twin uses SCADA systems to integrate with operational data, archive software, sensor gateways, and enterprise asset management tools.
Simularge – digital twins with fewer data
Turkish startup Simularge is developing a patented approach to creating digital twins without the use of big data. Typically, huge amounts of data are required to create effective digital twins and ensure minimal underutilization of input parameters. Simularge algorithms provide fast digital twins and faster onboarding as they identify and track changes in the raw materials of the manufacturing process.
Future trends: Industry 5.0 or Society 5.0
Industry 5.0 is changing the worldview.
The core of Society 5.0 focuses on people as the main axis of the manufacturing sector. Both manufacturing and marketing agree that beyond Industry 5.0 is Society 5.0.
In Society 5.0, the products or services offered will be tailored to the needs of the customers. The intention is to achieve a confluence between technological development and humans, with the main goal being that humans and machines complement their activities rather than replacing humans with machines.
The use of cobots and robots is a fundamental change for working together on repetitive, dangerous and unsafe tasks. In addition, the work of people will be intellectual production, which means that it will be necessary to be qualified in order to be active in this model of society.
This new approach to human-machine interaction is expected to increase productivity and provide greater satisfaction to both the worker and the end user through customized products. Again, it is important to emphasize that Industry 5.0 goes beyond a simple manufacturing process and seeks a Society 5.0 designed and built to integrate humans and cobots.
One of the big conflicts with previous generations is the people-centric model. Process automation, the introduction of cobots, and the development of technology allow people to develop new skills in the production process.
With such a breakthrough approach, in order to achieve an intelligent society, education must change from its traditional form; new tools, software, and hardware are needed, which must be integrated with cobots and high-tech training of people for society 5.0.
The huge difference between Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 is that in Industry 4.0, robotics and other technology pillars are at the center of the Industrial Revolution, while in Society 5.0, technology complements or collaborates with human work. It is important to emphasize that the technological advances made in Industry 4.0 are increasing the efficiency and productivity of Society 5.0 by adding an emphasis on the production process to the creativity and craftsmanship of people. Another vision is expected.
In addition, it is important to note that the personalization of products and services is carried out in accordance with the real requirements of the market in order to avoid oversupply and unsellable inventory, which occurs in Industry 4.0. The main idea is to produce what the population really needs, minimizing overspending and losses due to overproduction. It also reduces CO2 emissions and environmental impact.
The vision is a society that integrates smart industries, autonomous cars, smart cities, etc.; in addition, action against climate change is to minimize all negative problems in the business world and governance systems. The ideal thought might be a more benevolent society, with greater cooperation between people, communities and countries, more trust between people, minimal corruption in public administration, and more equitable distribution of resources; In terms of markets, the basis of the production process will be greater trust between customers and companies.
Society 5.0 is expected to be more inclusive and environmentally friendly, as well as to have better management of individuality and simultaneous integration with the environment and society. The common expectation is a more sustainable world where environmental, social, and economic impacts are connected and integrated.