Transitioning from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0: A Human-Centric Approach

The advent of digital technologies for advanced manufacturing has resulted in a rapid transformation in the industrial world. In the manufacturing sector, Industry 4.0 largely aims to transform production agents from fully physical systems to cyber-physical systems. This is achieved by integration of various technologies such as Internet-of-Things, Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, edge computing, cyber-security etc. to bridge the digital and physical worlds. In this respect, a strong necessity to increase productivity through automated means while avoiding redundancy of human workers has led to great challenges on the global economy. In this lecture, the concept of Industry 5.0 that capitalises on a human-centric approach is elucidated, offering a solution to counter the issues of sidelining human capitals in Industry 4.0 environments. The notion is to leverage the possibility of intertwining robots and autonomous systems with the human brain through intelligent human-machine interfaces, allowing both parties (humans and machines) to work as collaborators instead of competitors. As such, while the main concern in Industry 4.0 is focused on automation, Industry 5.0 will be a synergy between humans and autonomous machines to drive the next generation of production strategies.