Emerging Technologies in Industrial Internet of Things for Industry 4.0
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Industrial Technologies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 17
Special Issue Editors
Interests: modeling, simulation and control of production systems; Industry 4.0; digital twin
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: manufacture automation; discrete event and hybrid systems; programable controller; control systems project; automation systems analyses; robotics; domotic; discrete systems modeling and control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: automation of manufacture; discrete event and hybrid systems; programable controller; control systems project; automation systems analyses; robotics; domotics; discrete systems modeling and control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) plays a central role in enabling Industry 4.0 by interconnecting physical assets, digital services, and intelligent decision-making mechanisms. This Special Issue focuses on emerging IIoT technologies, architectures, and paradigms that address the growing demands of low-latency operation, scalability, autonomy, and resilience in industrial systems. Key challenges include interoperability across heterogeneous devices and platforms, as well as enabling reliable and deterministic communication, secure and trustworthy data management, and seamless integration between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) domains.
Recent advances indicate a clear shift from centralized, cloud-centric models toward distributed edge–fog–cloud architectures, which are essential to support real-time analytics, adaptive control, fault tolerance, and enhanced resilience. In particular, low-latency data processing at the edge has become a critical requirement for time-sensitive industrial applications, where delays introduced by cloud-only approaches are unacceptable. These architectural trends contribute to more robust and resilient industrial systems that maintain operation under network disruptions, component failures, or changing production conditions.
Established IIoT functionalities such as remote monitoring, machine-to-machine communication, and predictive maintenance are increasingly being extended through artificial intelligence at the edge, service-oriented and event-driven architectures, and digital twin technologies. These developments reinforce the convergence of IIoT with cyber–physical systems, big data analytics, cloud computing, and industrial AI, fostering intelligent, flexible, and self-adaptive production environments.
This Special Issue invites high-quality research contributions and industrial case studies that investigate novel IIoT-enabled solutions for Industry 4.0. Particular emphasis is placed on IIoT architectures validated through industrial pilots or deployment-scale case studies, demonstrating practical feasibility, performance, and impact in real industrial settings. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, architectural frameworks, security and trust mechanisms, low-latency and resilient system design, data-driven intelligence, interoperability strategies, and integration with enabling technologies such as 5G, time-sensitive networking (TSN), and digital twins.
Prof. Dr. Fabrício Junqueira
Prof. Dr. Paulo Eigi Miyagi
Dr. Marcosiris Amorim de Oliveira Pessoa
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- industrial internet of things (IIoT)
- Industry 4.0
- edge–fog–cloud architectures
- cyber–physical systems
- digital twins
- industrial system resilience
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