#720 – The Fourth Industrial Revolution is Here
Posted on | The Agurban
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is Here
We were quite intrigued by a recent report from Simone Gianotti, Business Development Manager for the Digital Offer Industry for Schneider Electric. The report, “Real World, Augmented Reality, Augmented Virtuality, Virtual Reality…How Many Realities Can You Have in Industrial Automation?”, shared some key takeaways regarding new technologies that will have a major impact on the manufacturing industry.
- We have entered a fourth industrial revolution, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It began in 2013 and links digitization and communication, utilizing the cloud, big data, analytics, augmented reality/virtual reality, and more. (As a reminder, the first industrial revolution was based on steam power and mechanization; the second was driven by electricity and mass production; and the third industrial revolution was based on computers, robotics and the introduction of automation.)
- Virtual reality, augmented reality, and other realities are a big part of the fourth revolution.
- Some common uses of augmented reality in industrial automation include monitoring to show how well assets are working and providing performance indicators, warnings, and alarms, and training through how-to-videos and operational sequences that can be followed safely and securely.
- Reducing maintenance costs is one of the main use cases for augmented reality.
- Today the most common augmented reality implementations involve goggles or tablets/smartphones.
- Augmented reality and virtual reality are not passing fads. They are here to stay.
The future is now! This is a great report if you are curious where manufacturing is heading.