Technologies for Industry 4.0

A special issue of Technologies (ISSN 2227-7080). This special issue belongs to the section "Information and Communication Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 December 2018) | Viewed by 57440

Special Issue Editors

Department Media and Digital Technologies, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, 3100 St. Pölten, Austria
Interests: big data; Industry 4.0; semantic web; data integration; mechatronic engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Computer Engineering, University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain
Interests: blockchain; intelligent transportation systems; wireless sensor networks; fog computing; edge computing; industrial Internet of things (IIoT); RFID; wireless communications; cybersecurity; augmented reality; Industry 4.0; traceability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industry 4.0 principles are already changing the way that companies deal with their daily tasks. Such tasks can be performed faster and more efficiently by making use of the latest technologies fostered by Industry 4.0: The Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), additive manufacturing, Big Data, cyber-security, Cloud computing, or Augmented and Virtual Reality (AVR). The range of potential Industry 4.0 applications is very large, impacting on many aspects of smart factories, such as logistics, mobility, smart buildings, product traceability, smart grids or in health and safety at work.

This Special Issue is intended to report on latest innovations in the application of technologies to Industry 4.0. Both practical and theoretical papers are welcome, as well as reviews on the application of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Innovative applications for Industry 4.0.
  • Case studies in the design and implementation of Industry 4.0 applications.
  • Performance comparisons of traditional industrial processes versus Industry 4.0 counterparts.
  • Industrial Augmented and Virtual Reality applications.
  • Novel applications of cloud, edge, distributed and decentralized computing.
  • Novel cyber-physical systems for Industry 4.0.
  • Cyber-security analysis and solutions for Industry 4.0 applications.

Dr. Thomas Moser
Dr. Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Technologies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Industry 4.0
  • IoT
  • IIoT
  • CPS
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Cyber-security
  • Big Data
  • Cloud Computing
  • Augmented Reality
  • Virtual Reality
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Published Papers (7 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

20 pages, 8069 KiB  
Article
A Novel Chip-Level Blockchain Security Solution for the Internet of Things Networks
by Hiroshi Watanabe and Howie Fan
Technologies 2019, 7(1), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies7010028 - 07 Mar 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7066
Abstract
The widespread computer network has been changing drastically and substantially since blockchain and IoT entered the stage. Blockchain is good at protecting data transactions between logical nodes with a desirable guaranty. Internet of Things (IoT), on the other hand, by providing ultimate convenience [...] Read more.
The widespread computer network has been changing drastically and substantially since blockchain and IoT entered the stage. Blockchain is good at protecting data transactions between logical nodes with a desirable guaranty. Internet of Things (IoT), on the other hand, by providing ultimate convenience to consumers, is expected to give rise to many various merits in a broad business scene. The security of IoT is still an open problem and if blockchain can reinforce IoT security, as many authors have hoped in recent papers, these newcomers appear to make a good collaboration to reinforce IoT security. However, software copes with logical nodes and IoT involves a vast number of physical nodes (IoT devices). Enabling blockchain to protect IoT cannot be brought to reality without respectively identifying logical and physical nodes. This is identical to the Proof-of-Trust problem. In this article, we propose a conceptual solution—Blockchained IoT—and show that this concept is able to be realized on-chip level using mass-produced dynamical random access memory (DRAM). We have completed the first test of longevity and temperature dependence (−40 °C to 105 °C) to confirm the necessary characteristics for the 5G base stations that are known to have an issue of self-heating. Furthermore, we have coarsely evaluated the probability of two DRAM IC chips being associated with an identical cyber-physical chip identification accidentally. Then, such a probability is minimal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 6028 KiB  
Article
A Verifiable Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme for Cloud Computing Security
by Ahmed EL-YAHYAOUI and Mohamed Dafir ECH-CHERIF EL KETTANI
Technologies 2019, 7(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies7010021 - 06 Feb 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 10283
Abstract
Performing smart computations in a context of cloud computing and big data is highly appreciated today. It allows customers to fully benefit from cloud computing capacities (such as processing or storage) without losing confidentiality of sensitive data. Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is a [...] Read more.
Performing smart computations in a context of cloud computing and big data is highly appreciated today. It allows customers to fully benefit from cloud computing capacities (such as processing or storage) without losing confidentiality of sensitive data. Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is a smart category of encryption schemes that enables working with the data in its encrypted form. It permits us to preserve confidentiality of our sensible data and to benefit from cloud computing capabilities. While FHE is combined with verifiable computation, it offers efficient procedures for outsourcing computations over encrypted data to a remote, but non-trusted, cloud server. The resulting scheme is called Verifiable Fully Homomorphic Encryption (VFHE). Currently, it has been demonstrated by many existing schemes that the theory is feasible but the efficiency needs to be dramatically improved in order to make it usable for real applications. One subtle difficulty is how to efficiently handle the noise. This paper aims to introduce an efficient and symmetric verifiable FHE based on a new mathematic structure that is noise free. In our encryption scheme, the noise is constant and does not depend on homomorphic evaluation of ciphertexts. The homomorphy of our scheme is obtained from simple matrix operations (addition and multiplication). The running time of the multiplication operation of our encryption scheme in a cloud environment has an order of a few milliseconds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 1067 KiB  
Article
Adapting Engineering Education to Industry 4.0 Vision
by Selim Coşkun, Yaşanur Kayıkcı and Eray Gençay
Technologies 2019, 7(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies7010010 - 10 Jan 2019
Cited by 111 | Viewed by 14408
Abstract
Industry 4.0 is originally a future vision described in the high-tech strategy of the German government that is conceived upon information and communication technologies like Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Physical Internet, and Internet of Services to achieve a high degree of flexibility [...] Read more.
Industry 4.0 is originally a future vision described in the high-tech strategy of the German government that is conceived upon information and communication technologies like Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Physical Internet, and Internet of Services to achieve a high degree of flexibility in production (individualized mass production), higher productivity rates through real-time monitoring and diagnosis, and a lower wastage rate of material in production. An important part of the tasks in the preparation for Industry 4.0 is the adaption of the higher education to the requirements of this vision, in particular the engineering education. In this work, we introduce a road map consisting of three pillars describing the changes/enhancements to be conducted in the areas of curriculum development, lab concept, and student club activities. We also report our current application of this road map at the Turkish German University, Istanbul. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 7490 KiB  
Article
Comparing Approaches for Evaluating Digital Interventions on the Shop Floor
by Francisco José Lacueva-Pérez, Lea Hannola, Jan Nierhoff, Stelios Damalas, Soumyajit Chatterjee, Thomas Herrmann and Marlene Schafler
Technologies 2018, 6(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies6040116 - 05 Dec 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6338
Abstract
The introduction of innovative digital tools for supporting manufacturing processes has far-reaching effects at an organizational and individual level due to the development of Industry 4.0. The FACTS4WORKERS project funded by H2020, i.e., Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories, aims to develop user-centered assistance [...] Read more.
The introduction of innovative digital tools for supporting manufacturing processes has far-reaching effects at an organizational and individual level due to the development of Industry 4.0. The FACTS4WORKERS project funded by H2020, i.e., Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories, aims to develop user-centered assistance systems in order to demonstrate their impact and applicability at the shop floor. To achieve this, understanding how to develop such tools is as important as assessing if advantages can be derived from the ICT system created. This study introduces the technology of a workplace solution linked to the industrial challenge of self-learning manufacturing workplaces. Subsequently, a two-step approach to evaluate the presented system is discussed, consisting of the one used in FACTS4WORKERS and the one used in the “Heuristics for Industry 4.0” project. Both approaches and the use case are introduced as a base for presenting the comparison of the results collected in this paper. The comparison of the results for the presented use case is extended with the results for the rest of the FACTS4WORKERS use cases and with future work in the framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 17556 KiB  
Article
Participated Planning of Large Water Infrastructures through Virtual Prototyping Technologies
by Alessandro Ros, Matteo Giuliani, Giulia Wally Scurati, Serena Graziosi, Francesco Ferrise and Monica Bordegoni
Technologies 2018, 6(3), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies6030068 - 28 Jul 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5193
Abstract
The design of large dams is a collaborative activity with relevant social and political implications. Planning such large infrastructures requires involving all the interested stakeholders, making shared decisions, tracing the design process. There are currently not many Virtual Prototyping tools to support this [...] Read more.
The design of large dams is a collaborative activity with relevant social and political implications. Planning such large infrastructures requires involving all the interested stakeholders, making shared decisions, tracing the design process. There are currently not many Virtual Prototyping tools to support this collaborative design process. In this paper, we propose a participated planning support system based on mobile and Augmented Reality technologies which allows different stakeholders to take part in the review of a large dam project through an application that automatically acquires information available online, allows all stakeholders to share information, and finally records everything for a subsequent analysis. The development of the application, as well as its use in two case studies and a user study, are described in the paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 2396 KiB  
Article
Technical Interoperability for Machine Connectivity on the Shop Floor
by Magnus Åkerman, Johan Stahre, Ulrika Engström, Ola Angelsmark, Daniel McGillivray, Torgny Holmberg, Maja Bärring, Camilla Lundgren, Martin Friis and Åsa Fast-Berglund
Technologies 2018, 6(3), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies6030057 - 22 Jun 2018
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5079
Abstract
This paper presents a generic technical solution that can increase Industry 4.0 maturity by collecting data from sensors and control systems on the shop floor. Within the research project “5G-Enabled Manufacturing”, an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network with 5G technologies was deployed on the [...] Read more.
This paper presents a generic technical solution that can increase Industry 4.0 maturity by collecting data from sensors and control systems on the shop floor. Within the research project “5G-Enabled Manufacturing”, an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network with 5G technologies was deployed on the shop floor to enable fast and scalable connectivity. This network was used to connect a grinding machine to a remote private cloud where data was stored and streamed to a data analytics center. This enabled visibility and transparency of the production data, which is the basis for Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing. The solution is described with a focus on high-level communication technologies above wireless communication standards. These technologies are discussed regarding technical interoperability, focusing on the system layout, communication standards, and open systems. From the discussion, it can be derived that generic solutions such as this are possible, but manufacturing end-users must expand and further internalize knowledge of future information and communication technologies to reduce their dependency on equipment and technology providers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

24 pages, 3277 KiB  
Review
On Distributed Denial of Service Current Defense Schemes
by Seth Djane Kotey, Eric Tutu Tchao and James Dzisi Gadze
Technologies 2019, 7(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies7010019 - 30 Jan 2019
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 8290
Abstract
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are a major threat to any network-based service provider. The ability of an attacker to harness the power of a lot of compromised devices to launch an attack makes it even more complex to handle. This complexity [...] Read more.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are a major threat to any network-based service provider. The ability of an attacker to harness the power of a lot of compromised devices to launch an attack makes it even more complex to handle. This complexity can increase even more when several attackers coordinate to launch an attack on one victim. Moreover, attackers these days do not need to be highly skilled to perpetrate an attack. Tools for orchestrating an attack can easily be found online and require little to no knowledge about attack scripts to initiate an attack. Studies have been done severally to develop defense mechanisms to detect and defend against DDoS attacks. As defense schemes are designed and developed, attackers are also on the move to evade these defense mechanisms and so there is a need for a continual study in developing defense mechanisms. This paper discusses the current DDoS defense mechanisms, their strengths and weaknesses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technologies for Industry 4.0)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop