Industry 4.0 in Robotics

The so-called 4th industrial revolution is going to radically change the common idea of the factory, and a great industrial research effort is dedicated to the definition of the "Factory of the Future" models. The fourth industrial revolution is characterised by the word automation, which is achieved in industrial production by addressing four challenges: 1. Intelligent machines control the production in smart factories in which the presence of human is enormously reduced. 2. Intelligent machines optimize the capacity of the production facility, coordinating the movement of the material, analysing the status of the production chain and the stock, and zeroing the downtime. 3. Intelligent machines are essentially self-organized; material planning and the handling of orders are fully automated. 4. Intelligent machines can autonomously reconfigure the production line to respond in a very short time to the personalized customer request. Intelligent machines are based on a complex cyber part and artificial intelligence algorithm. Indeed, Industry 4.0 mainly has two foundations: the hardware layer, which includes all the physical elements, and a software layer, the cyber part. Robot sensing and actuation, which belong to the hardware layer, were discussed in the previous chapter. In this chapter the cyber part is discussed, focusing on programming, control and artificial intelligence. Moreover, a brief overview of the ethical issues related with the intelligence implemented in the machines is provided at the end of the chapter.