Industry 4.0

Aim and Scope:

Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution, is a collective term embracing some contemporary automation, data exchange, and manufacturing technologies. Industry 4.0 is also referred as Industrial Internet, Smart Factory, Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) or Advanced Manufacturing, but the meaning is mostly the same. It is defined as a collective term for technologies and concepts of value chain organizations which bring together Cyber-Physical Systems, the Internet of Services and the Internet of Things.

Respect the unlimited possibilities of having billions of people connected by mobile devices, giving rise to novel processing power, storage capacities, and knowledge access. Alternatively, think about the staggering confluence of emerging technology breakthroughs, covering wide-ranging fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, materials science and energy storage, to name a few. Many of these innovations are in their infancy, but they are already approaching an inflection point in their development as they build on and augment each other in a fusion of technologies across the physical, digital and biological worlds.

This special issue emphasizes on Industry 4.0 and its real world applications. Some of the topics covered are listed below:

Big Data and Analytics

Analytics based on large data sets has appeared in the manufacturing world, where it optimizes production quality, saves energy, and improves equipment service. In an Industry 4.0 context, the collection and comprehensive evaluation of data from many different sources production equipment and systems as well as an enterprise and customer management systems.

Autonomous Robots

Companies in many industries have long used robots to launch complex tasks, but robots are evolving for even greater utility. They are becoming more autonomous, flexible, and cooperative. Eventually, they interact with one another and work safely side by side with humans and learn from them.

Simulation

In the engineering phase, 3-D simulations of products, materials, and production processes are already used, but in the future, simulations will be used more extensively in plant operations as well. These simulations will leverage real-time data to mirror the physical world in a virtual model, which can include machines, products, and humans. This allows operators to test and optimize the machine settings for the next product in line in the virtual world before the physical changeover, thereby driving down machine setup times and increasing quality.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things and the Internet of Services in the manufacturing process has initiated Industry 4.0. However, with the industrial Internet of Things, more devices are enriched with embedded computing and connected using standard technologies. This allows field devices to communicate and interact both with one another and with more centralized controllers, as necessary. It also decentralizes analytics and decision making, enabling real-time responses.

Cybersecurity

The raised connectivity and use of standard communications protocols that come with Industry 4.0, the need to protect critical industrial systems and manufacturing lines from cybersecurity threats increase dramatically. As a result, secure, reliable communications, as well as sophisticated identity and access management of machines and users, are essential.

Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing as the industrial version of 3-D printing is already used to make some niche items, such as medical implants, and to produce plastic prototypes for engineers and designers. With Industry 4.0, these additive manufacturing methods will be widely used to produce small batches of customized products that offer construction advantages, such as complex, lightweight designs. High-performance, decentralized additive manufacturing systems will reduce transport distances and stock on hand.

Assistance Systems

Technologies that support employees at work and help them focus on their core tasks e.g. smartphone, tablet, smart glasses. These systems are currently in their infancy, but in the future, companies will make much broader use of augmented reality to provide workers with real-time information to improve decision making and work procedures.

Submission Procedure:

Full papers can be submitted at http://ees.elsevier.com/eaai/default.asp (all manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines available at the website). During the submission process, please select \”SI: Industry 4.0\” as the article type. Prospective authors are encouraged to indicate their interests any time before the submission deadline by writing to the lead guest editor Vaclav Snasel 

Publication Schedule:

Full Papers Due for Review: 10 September 2017

Notification of First round of reviews: 15 October 2017

Revised Manuscript Submission: 30 November 2017

Final Decision: 31 December 2017

Final Manuscripts: 31 January 2018

Expected Date of Publication of SI: 15 February 2018

Team of Guest Editors

Managing Guest Editor:

1. Vaclav Snasel, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic vaclav.snasel@vsb.cz

Guest Editors

1. Wolfgang Wahlster, Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz, Germany  wahlster@dfki.de
2. Vladimir Marik, Czech Technical University, Czech Republic vladimir.marik@ciirc.cvut.cz
3. Thomas Strasser, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Austria Thomas.Strasser@ait.ac.at
4. Ajith Abraham, Machine Intelligence Research Labs, USA ajith.abraham@ieee.org
5. Alécio P. D. Binotto, IBM Research, Brazil abinotto@br.ibm.com
6. Felix Gomez Marmol, NEC Laboratories Europe, Germany felixgm@um.es
7. Edward Au, Huawei Technologies Co., Canada edward.ks.au@huawei.com