Easy Development of Industry 4.0 Remote Labs

Abstract

Acquiring hands-on skills is nowadays key for engineers in the context of Industry 4.0. However, it is not always possible to achieve this in person. Therefore, it is essential to be able to conduct skill acquisition from a remote location. To support the development of remote labs for experimentation, this work proposes the development of an open Industry 4.0 remote platform that can be easily configured and scaled to develop new remote labs for IoT (Internet of Things), cybersecurity, perception systems, robotics, AI (artificial intelligence), etc. Over time, these capabilities will enable the development of sustainable Industry 4.0 remote labs. These labs will coexist on the same Industry 4.0 platform, as our proposed Industry 4.0 remote platform is capable of connecting multiple heterogeneous types of devices for remote programming. In this way, it is possible to easily design open remote labs for the digital transition to Industry 4.0 in a standardized way, which is the main research goal of our In4Labs project. Several users already conducted a series of IoT experiments on our remote Industry 4.0 platform, providing useful recommendations to be included in future versions of the platform.