IoT and Industry 4.0

Collaborative manufacturing:

• Co-existence: Human and robot work alongside each other, but with no shared workspace.

• Sequential Collaboration: Human and robot share all or part of a workspace but do not work on a part or machine at the same time.

• Co-operation: Robot and human work on the same part or machine at the same time, and both are in motion.

• Responsive Collaboration: The robot responds in real-time to the worker’s motion.

Collaborative robots (Cobots) are robots intended to interact with humans in a shared space or to work safely in close proximity. Cobots stand in contrast to traditional industrial robots which are designed to work autonomously with safety assured by isolation from human contact. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobot] 

Human–robot interaction (HRI) is the study of interactions between humans and robots. HRI is a multidisciplinary field that includes human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence, robotics, natural language understanding, design, humanities and social sciences. 

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) refers to interconnected sensors, instruments, and other devices networked together with computers' industrial applications. The IIoT is an evolution of a distributed control system that allows for a higher degree of automation by using technologies such as: 

• Cyber-physical systems: the basic technology platform for IoT and IIoT and therefore the main enabler to connect physical machines that were previously disconnected. 

• Cloud computing: IT services and resources can be uploaded to and retrieved from the Internet as opposed to direct connection to a server. 

• Edge computing refers to decentralized data processing at the edge of the network.  The industrial internet requires more of an edge-plus-cloud architecture rather than one based on purely centralized cloud.

• Big data analytics is the process of examining large and varied data sets, or big data.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field within computer science in which intelligent machines are created that work and react like humans. 

• Machine learning is a core part of AI, allowing software to more accurately predict outcomes without explicitly being programmed.