(Commonwealth Union)_The Fourth Industrial Revolution has just begun. The introduction of the first assembly lines 100 years ago and the addition of computers 50 years later make the intelligent cyber-physical systems that are replacing them on factory floors appear almost archaic. The long history of the industrial revolution is combining with robotics and the digital revolution’s and its ever-evolving capabilities in Industry 4.0.
As a result of autonomous or nearly autonomous systems using machine learning, embedded systems, sensors, and the industrial internet of things — as well as 3D printers and edge computing — the intelligent data-driven production environments of Industry 4.0 are highly flexible and effective. In a number of sectors, including agriculture, food and beverage, electronics, pharmaceuticals, transportation, medical devices, fulfillment centres, and more, we observe examples of this gaining ground and becoming more popular.
The new aspirational ideal is the flexible and decentralized design of more intelligent factories and industrial spaces that are capital cost and energy-efficient. However, there are several technological obstacles blocking the way to a fully developed intelligent industrial society. It goes beyond the software required for artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine connectivity, and security (AI). Hardware innovation is essential for the hundreds of millions of motors, motor drives, and robotic devices used in modern industrial environments, as well as for the server racks in data centres that power smart factories.
Smaller and more energy-efficient physical designs for motor drives, together with increasingly autonomous robots from wireless charging, will alter the industrial market’s design, economics, and energy dynamics.
A new wave of data centre demand is predicted by the enormous demand for storage to handle the data produced by a facility’s intelligent sensors and equipment. New approaches to service scalability, data density, and energy efficiency will be adopted by data centres.
For the advantages of Industry 4.0 to keep expanding, three categories of hardware technology—motors and motor drives, robots and robotics, and data centre servers and storage—need to undergo significant growth. Increased energy efficiency and innovative hardware design, if effectively implemented, will offer hitherto unattainable capital and operating cost savings in equipment, as well as unparalleled flexibility in facility layout.
