Design and Production Engineering&Mechatronics, Automation and Smart Materials

Smart manufacturing is now more and more associated with Industry 4.0 (i4), which stands for the fourth, and the fi rst a-priori engineered, ‘Industrial (R)evolution’. It refers to the industrial value chain and technological evolution upgrading the factory fl oor to a be-spoke mass innovation centre. It is associated with the concepts of customized mass production, smart manufacturing, smart factory, autonomous manufacturing, networked embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, industrial internet, and internet of everything. Th is talk will explore critical insight into the global perspective in relation to artifi cial intelligence. For Industry 4.0, multi-national companies such as Siemens are already making a leading eff ort in the vertical integration to network machinery, control systems and sensors together, so that, all the data from the production process can be used to make decisions on manufacturing. Upgrading the entire manufacturing value chain at the dawn of Industry 4.0 has led to a global race in innovation, design, and creativity for smart manufacturing and smart products through life. Th rough computational intelligence, the talk focuses on how to utilize artifi cial evolution to achieve manufacturing-ready smart designs with increased innovation and creativity for enhanced competitiveness. Th e talk will conclude with a summary of challenges, opportunities and future directions presented by Industry 4.0 and how we may best capitalize on them in China-Europe research cooperation.