Industry 4.0

While virtual reality can facilitate hands-on learning, its development faces barriers, including high costs and time demands and scalability challenges. This article presents two case studies that illustrate strategies for overcoming such barriers when training the next generation of skilled workers in environmental technologies. By examining approaches for streamlining development and increasing content relevance and scalability, we highlight lessons learned for future practice. We conclude by envisioning a future in which educational institutions can flexibly and cost-effectively prototype virtual reality in learning contexts, ensuring alignment with curricular goals and learners’ needs.

The rapid advancement of immersive technologies has created new opportunities to transform human-machine collaboration in industry. This paper presents an immersive platform with a digital twin that combines both physical and cognitive characteristics of human dynamics. By integrating multimodal sensing, human biomechanics, and cognitive state into digital twin technology, the proposed system enhances operational safety and ensures better ergonomics. The main argument is that human digital twins are not only desirable but essential for next-generation industrial systems. We discuss the limitations of existing human modeling approaches, outline the conceptual foundations of human digital twins, and demonstrate their industrial relevance across safety, productivity, ergonomics and sustainability.

In recent years, numerous maturity models have been developed with the aim of providing a clear indication of the progress each company has made in terms of Industry 4.0 development. However, not all models include all aspects of Industry 4.0. The models are also not equally practical. This article offers an in-depth comparison and assessment of the comprehensiveness of the ten most important Industry 4.0 maturity models.

Any networked information system that is used in the context of manufacturing and logistics in a factory can be referred to as factory software. This article describes six trends that will significantly influence the way software is used in factories in the near future. The trends are described in ascending order in terms of significance of impact.