Edge Computing Architectures in Industry 4.0

Dear Colleagues,

It will soon be ten years since the term Industry 4.0 was first mentioned at the Hannover Fair in 2011. The fourth industrial revolution brings with it an ecosystem of enabling technologies such as cyberphysical systems, robotics, cybersecurity, big data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and predictive maintenance, additive manufacturing, and of course, the Industrial Internet of Things. Thanks to IIoT devices and platforms, all the elements involved in production processes are connected to each other and to the cloud, where they are represented by their digital twins. This makes it possible to characterize the different production processes in the industry’s value chain, extract value-added knowledge, and apply Big Data Analytics techniques in the cloud, including predictive and prescriptive maintenance, as well as detection of anomalous patterns using machine learning techniques. However, various challenges and limitations arise when sending data to the cloud, such as the high energy consumption of IoT devices or the challenges regarding the security and privacy of the data transferred. Furthermore, cloud service providers charge their costs according to the amount of data that are transferred, processed and stored in the cloud. Finally, in an architecture based solely on an IoT layer and a cloud layer, services may be interrupted if communication with the cloud is cut off. In this sense, Edge Computing architectures allow pre-processing and filtering of the data being transferred to the cloud, reducing costs, avoiding security problems, and allowing machine learning models to be run at the edge of the network with lower latency and higher service availability.

For this purpose, this Special Issue will be focused on but not limited to the following topics:

• Innovative edge computing architectures;
• Industrial Internet of Things and edge computing;
• Machine learning at the edge in Industry 4.0 scenarios;
• Edge computing and cyber-physical systems;
• Internet of Robotic Things and edge computing;
• Management of additive manufacturing at the edge;
• Integration of operational technology in edge computing architectures;
• Innovative frameworks for managing data security and privacy at the edge;
• Novel applications of edge computing and IoT in Industry 4.0 scenarios: heavy and light industry, agro-industry, smart energy, healthcare, smart transportation, smart farming, smart logistics, etc.

Dr. Ricardo S. Alonso
Dr. Óscar García
Dr. Miguel A. Sánchez Vidales
Guest Editors

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