about the performed production process. Another tool supporting the assembly in supply chains and the coordination of activities is augmented reality, which can be fully integrated in the information company infrastructure. An important step for a new concept of production is the upgrade of the information technology (IT) infrastructure automatically gaining the knowledge. Different IT architectures are proposed for different application fields to enhance technologies more suitable for a self‐adaptive production providing decision support systems. A particular interesting topic for the innovative IT is the Internet of Things. The design and the development of an advanced IT infrastructure is the primary action to add for the upgrade in Industry 5.0. The AI concept is extended to the logic condition implementation, acting on signal processing, and on the use of simply electronic circuits representing these logics. The discussed methodologies allow to comprehend how it is possible to move on a competitive production based on the concept of “flexible” production and on new products based on advanced technologies on a micro‐ and nanoscale. In this scenario, companies working in manufacturing can switch dynamically the production on the new products, thus converting the production in innovative components, machines, materials, sensors, or devices. Following this orientation, this book proposes important approaches to automatize efficiently the new production, by analyzing highly advanced production tools based on nanotechnology. In this direction useful methodologies are analyzed to implement the production of high technology devices, such as reverse engineering and rapid prototyping by showing different examples useful to comprehend the methodologies to apply for an innovative production based on scientific and industrial research development. Particular attention is paid to the procedures to follow to produce a new device, to increase the company capacity to accelerate the industrialization process starting a new innovative prototype fabrication, and to basic approaches for the design modeling and testing. The optimization of the pre‐industrialization process to perform is accompanied by a quick check of the basic properties of the new product to fabricate, and by the simultaneous support of the AI application improving analysis. In order to start and to develop a new research activity, also concerning advanced technologies, precise schemes must be followed. The discussed topics facilitate the understanding of the directions of the research for the production upscaling, just to apply the research activity. The last part of the book provides different elements useful for writing an industrial research project, and for the project management. This book deals with multidisciplinary topics including electronics, mechatronics, mechanics, and informatics. All the analyzed topics are useful to know; the key elements are indispensable and useful to move the production from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0.
Alessandro Massaro Bari, 28 December 2021
About the Author
Professor Alessandro Massaro (ING/INF/01, FIS/01, FIS/03) carried out scientific research at the Polytechnic University of Marche, at CNR, and at Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) as Team Leader by activating laboratories for nanocomposite sensors for industrial robotics. He was head of the Research and Development section and scientific director of MIUR Research Institute Dyrecta Lab Srl. Actually, he carries out research activities in LUM Enterprise at LUM University ‐Libera Università Mediterranea‐ (Casamassima‐BA‐, Italy), he is in MIUR register as scientific expert in competitive Industrial Research and Social Development, and he is currently Member of the International Scientific Committee of Measurers IMEKO and IEEE Senior Member. He received an award from the National Council of Engineers as Best Engineer of Italy 2018 (Top Young Engineer 2018).
1 State of the Art and Technology Innovation
The chapter is focused on the technological and scientific state of the art about information technology (IT) advances. Starting with Industry 4.0 enabling technologies, the scientific improvements transforming the production lines and machines in intelligent systems following the logic of Industry 5.0 are discussed. The new facilities and the new technologies are oriented on the design of flexible and dynamical production processes, taking into account the market demand which is increasingly unpredictable. Starting with the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0, the specifications of the hardware and software technologies for advances in Industry 5.0 manufacturing industries are introduced. Communication protocols able to improve sensing and actuation in production processes are also discussed. Moreover, the analysis describes the Internet of Things (IoT) protocols, IoT upgrade processes and technological improvements, where of particular interest in monitoring industrial processing is infrared thermography (IRT) for improving thermal measurements in the production environment. The chapter is also focused on the description of different levels of the company information system, where sensors monitoring production constitute the field layer. The discussion is then oriented to provide an overview about sensors communicating with the local network by protocols, and achieving intelligent and efficient sensing and actuation. All the analyzed topics are addressed for integration into an upgraded information infrastructure implementing advanced tools. The analysis is then moved to the production processes in industries by highlighting main interconnections and architectures interfacing different tools. The study also enhances the scientific approaches consolidated in Industry 4.0, by providing limits of the actual technologies and perspectives for future production upscaling. Furthermore, the chapter discusses mainly intelligent information infrastructure suitable for manufacturing industries. The chapter goal is to introduce technological elements such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and big data systems, providing knowledge gain (KG). Other important aspects are the horizontal and vertical integrations of the technologies, considering bus‐based networks and automatisms in data processing which is significant for the production advances. The chapter provides elements useful to comprehend how technologies can be implemented in flexible information architectures for innovative industrialization processes.
1.1 State of the Art of Flexible Technologies in Industry
Industry 4.0 introduced digital technologies improving industry productivity and different facilities supporting processes. The main enabling technologies introduced by Industry 4.0 are [1–3]:
Three‐dimensional (3D) printers connected to production software.
AR oriented on production processes.
Simulation tools able to optimize production processes by simulating production of different interconnected machines of different production lines.
Horizontal integration of supply chain elements, such as human resources, supplies, products, transports, logistics, etc., and vertical integration of different production functions including product design, production processes, production quality, and end to end combination of horizontal and vertical functions.
Cloud computing, cloud data storage, and data management in open data and big data systems.
Cybersecurity improving security during network operations and in open systems, managing network interconnections.
These main facilities enable smart manufacturing (SM) and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) industry processes in the fourth industrial revolution. In this scenario of enabling technologies, the information network architecture of companies plays a fundamental rule in production upgrade and in production engineering. The information digitalization is the first step for Industry 4.0 implementation, where the production machines transfer data in the local area network (LAN) and in general in the cloud environment. A particular function in Industry 4.0 improvement is the production monitoring, automated by IoT sensors [4], reading in real time the operation conditions of the whole production
