Security to Take a Major Role in Commercialization of Industry 4.0 Solutions

Revolutionary advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have led to the explosive growth of mobile devices and brought about the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). These developments also led to a massive overhaul of the manufacturing sector that is based the principles of “Industry 4.0”. As of now, countries have showcased their respective Industry 4.0/digital manufacturing initiatives – the U.S., Germany, Japan and others – are still in the exploration stage in terms of solutions and products offered by their industries. Mass commercialization has yet to take place.

Vice President Lee Hwang of Topology Research Institute, a division of TrendForce said companies from diverse sectors are now trying to seize opportunities related to smart manufacturing (e.g. collaborative robots and Internet-connected machine tools). Furthermore, many of their offerings will become commercially available next year. With smart manufacturing solutions poised to enter the market, standardization and security of Internet connections will become a key development issue. This is where telecommunication/networking equipment suppliers such as Cisco Systems will play a major role in driving the transformation of industries.

Through commercialization, some products will become touchstones of market acceptance towards smart manufacturing solutions

In the field of smart manufacturing, collaborative robots and Internet-connected machine tools are two major product groups that are currently undergoing commercialization. With respect to collaborative robots, numerous assembly robot solutions are now available on the market – the dual-arm robot YuMi from Swiss-based high-tech company ABB, LBR iiwa from German robotics firm KUKA, CR-35iA from Japanese industrial robot maker FANUC and Motoman-HC 10 from Yaskawa, another Japanese robotics company. Designed to work alongside people, collaborative robots have fewer sharp edges on their bodies and will stop or slow down when come in contact with human operators. These features ensure that collaboration with robots will be as safe as possible. Internally, collaborative robots are equipped with visual tracking systems, and users are able to teach them to perform actions by moving their arms. Through direct physical guidance, the robots will memorize pathways and procedures so that they can work independently or with another person if they also feature intelligent technologies.

As for Internet-connected machine tools, machine-tool makers such as DMG Mori Seiki, Yamazaki Mazak and Okuma have launched computerized numerical control (CNC) systems and machine tools with Internet connection capability. This kind of manufacturing solutions allow for the remote control of equipment’s operation. Furthermore, users can install and use third-party software on these machines without system restrictions. In the future, standardization and security of Internet connection will be crucial to the development and commercialization of these products.