Open Access

Gerhard GruhlerORCiD, Julian Hermann

• It is expected that ongoing digitalisation will drive the merger between the manufacturing world and the internet world, possibly leading to a next industrial revolution, currently called “Industry 4.0”. The driving forces behind this development are new business opportunities and competition advantages arising from mass production customisation as well as rapid individual product development and manufacturing. Key factors of the development towards Industry 4.0 are discussed. Threats and opportunities arising from these developments for future production are discussed. Actual examples from real-time customized manufacturing of consumer products are given. As mechatronic systems and industrial robots are widely used in manufacturing and in particular in assembly, it is discussed how they can be connected to and used in digitalised industrial systems. Different examples of remote controlled systems are presented, like remote controlled KUKA robot for handling and quality control, PLC-controlled equipment, drive systems, FESTO handling system and others. The architecture of an assembly cell is presented, where industrial robots are set-up for batch-one production or can directly receive control / production information on-line and in real-time over the factory network. Methods for remote maintenance and monitoring of systems over the internet and production operator support over the internet are presented as well.