Multimodal Intelligence and Digital–Physical Systems in the Industrial Internet of Things

Dear Colleagues,

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is entering a new stage of development through the convergence of digital and physical systems and the rise of multimodal intelligence. By integrating advanced approaches such as digital twins, blockchains, intelligent sensing, and artificial intelligence, the IIoT is evolving into a more adaptive, reliable, and sustainable paradigm. In particular, the incorporation of multimodal large models has opened new opportunities for unified perception, knowledge representation, and decision-making across heterogeneous industrial data sources, enabling predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, fault diagnosis, and resilient operations that enhance efficiency and innovation across sectors such as manufacturing, energy, transportation, and logistics.

This Special Issue aims to present high-quality research on emerging theories, methodologies, and applications of multimodal intelligence and digital–physical systems in the IIoT. We welcome original research articles, case studies, and reviews reporting significant scientific and technological progress. The key acceptance criteria will be novelty and rigor. Submissions that provide experimental validations, industrial case studies, or lessons learned are strongly encouraged. Review papers that synthesize the state of the art and discuss future research directions are also welcome.

The main topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architectures and applications;
• Digital twin modeling, simulation, and control;
• Multimodal large models for the IIoT;
• Cyber–physical integration and industrial automation;
• Predictive maintenance and prognostics and health management (PHM);
• Blockchain and trusted data management in the IIoT;
• Edge, fog, and cloud computing for the IIoT;
• Intelligent sensing, monitoring, and anomaly detection;
• Reliability engineering and fault-tolerant design of IIoT systems;
• Data-driven decision-making and industrial big data analytics;
• Application domains (smart manufacturing, energy systems, intelligent transportation, and logistics).

Dr. Dun Li
Dr. Hongzhi Li
Dr. Huan Wang
Dr. Zisheng Wang
Guest Editors

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