The Road to Industry 4.0 and Beyond: A Communications-, Information-, and Operation Technology Collaboration Perspective

TL;DR

This paper discusses how seamless collaboration among communication, information, and operation technologies (CIOT) is crucial for advancing Industry 4.0 and future industrial revolutions, emphasizing technical challenges and future roadmap.

Contribution

It introduces the CIOT collaboration framework as a key feature of Industry 4.0, analyzing its impacts, challenges, and future steps for industrial evolution.

Findings

CIOT collaboration enhances industrial connectivity and intelligence.

Technical challenges in CT domain are identified and discussed.

A roadmap for future Industry 4.0 development is proposed.

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution, i.e., Industry 4.0, is evolving all around the globe. In this article, we introduce the landscape of Industry 4.0 and beyond empowered by the seamless collaboration of communication technology (CT), information technology (IT), and operation technology (OT), i.e., CIOT collaboration. Specifically, CIOT collaboration is regarded as a main improvement of Industry 4.0 compared to the previous industrial revolutions. We commence by reviewing the previous three industrial revolutions and we argue that the key feature of Industry 4.0 is the CIOT collaboration. More particularly, CT domain supports ubiquitous connectivity of the industrial elements and further bridges the physical world and the cyber world, which is a pivotal prerequisite. Then, we present the potential impacts of CIOT collaboration on typical industrial use cases with the objective of creating a more intelligent and human-friendly industry. Furthermore, the technical challenges of paving the way for the CIOT collaboration with an emphasis on the CT domain are discussed. Finally, we shed light on a roadmap for Industry 4.0 and beyond. The salient steps to be taken in the future CIOT collaboration are highlighted, which may be expected to expedite the paradigm shift towards the next industrial revolution.