IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2023 - 123

YOUNG P RO F E S S I ONA L S
Industry 4.0: What's Next?
By Andrea Maria Zanchettin
For the first time in the history of manufacturing,
the fourth industrial revolution
has not been centered on a specific technology.
Steam and electrical powers were
the two major contributions of the first
and second eras, respectively. Digital
controllers and automation constituted
the main advancements of the third. As
per Industry 4.0, there is not a single
technology. Connectivity
and digital systems were
already in place before
the term Industry 4.0 was
first mentioned. Digital
and connected manufacturing
arrived at the exact
time when these technologies
were mature
enough to be combined
with modern data processing
techniques in a
way to extract a reasonable
value.
"
them. Data can be exploited to synchronize
and register the behavior of
digital twins of every single asset or
even of the shop floor. Behind the obvious
utility of digital twins for predictive
maintenance, the optimization of
time and energy or, in general, of limited
resources is crucial to generate value by
reducing any kind of waste. With the term
waste I am here referring
to any kind of unprofitable
material (scraps) or
activity (muda).
MACHINES AND ALGORITHMS
ARE MATURE
TECHNOLOGIES
THAT CAN BE ADOPTED
TO EMPOWER
AND SUPPORT
HUMAN WORKERS
(BOTH PHYSICALLY
AND INTELLECTUDIGITALIZATION
With
the pervasive introduction
of connectivity
and digitalization at the
shop floor, every single
asset is connected and is
capable of producing big amounts of
data. Differently from other digital businesses,
in manufacturing however, data
are not necessarily a value: data are just
data. Hence, the goal is not just to produce
data, but to make the best use of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2023.3266935
Date of current version: 15 June 2023
ALLY), RATHER THAN
REPLACING THEM.
„
HUMAN-CENTERED
MANUFACTURING
Aren't we mi ssi ng
something? Definitely
yes: workers. Another
impor tant aspect of
these new production
pa r ad igms
is
t hei r
human-centricity. Factories,
working stations,
and aisles have to be
designed for and around
the human. Thanks to
automation and modern
robotics, humans are no
longer needed in what
roboticists call " dirty, dull, and dangerous "
jobs. They are indeed the brain of
the factory, leaving robots to act as
arms. Machines and algorithms are
mature technologies that can be adopted
to empower and support human workers
(both physically and intellectually),
rather than replacing them. Think about
collaborative robotics applications, in
which a robot is meant to support the
human, or artificial intelligence algorithms
specifically designed to support
human decisions.
EASE OF USE
Finally, from a nontechnological perspective,
Industry 4.0 is aiming at
" robotizing the craftsmanship. " Mass
production is no longer mainstream and
small and medium-sized enterprises are
looking at technologies to contain costs
in very flexible and dynamic markets.
" Mass customization " is the new motto,
which translates to the increasing quest
for intuitive interfaces and quick reprogrammability
of robots. It is quite curious
to read the formal definition of
" industrial robot " from the International
Organization of Standardization
(ISO) 8373 that one of the features that
differentiates machines from robots is
that the latter are reprogrammable.
Which is indeed true but, honestly, I
have never seen customers actually
exploiting this possibility. For a long
time, one robot meant one task. On the
other hand, robot manufacturers are
starting to offer simplified methods for
programming industrial robots.
More information about relevant
technical committees can be found at
https://www.ieee-ras.org/collaborative
-automation-for-flexible-manufacturing,
ht t ps: //www. ieee-ras.org/digit a l
-manufacturing-and-human-centered
-automation, and https://www.ieee-ras.
org/human-robot-interaction-coordination.
1070-9932/23©2023IEEE
JUNE 2023 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
123

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1866-7482 https://www.ieee-ras.org/collaborative-automation-for-flexible-manufacturing https://www.ieee-ras.org/collaborative-automation-for-flexible-manufacturing https://www.ieee-ras.org/digital-manufacturing-and-human-centered-automation https://www.ieee-ras.org/digital-manufacturing-and-human-centered-automation https://www.ieee-ras.org/human-robot-interaction-coordination https://www.ieee-ras.org/digital-manufacturing-and-human-centered-automation https://www.ieee-ras.org/human-robot-interaction-coordination

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