As the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0 (I4.0), advances, the integration of advanced wireless technologies such as 5G with different cyberphysical systems (CPS), industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) technologies, and cloud computing plays a pivotal role in the path towards successfully achieving the implementation of the most advanced and challenging industrial production and manufacturing-related concepts. Since I4.0 operational application scenarios can be very diverse (factory production halls, mines, power plants, warehouses, distribution networks, etc.), having each of them unique characteristics in terms of topography, topology, communication needs or contextual targets, the variety of industrial use cases with wireless potential is almost endless. Moreover, these use cases can be very different from each other in terms of communication requirements. For example, the control of PLCs in a production line via wireless manufacturing execution systems in a factory, or the massive deployment of sensors for predictive maintenance within an urban water distribution network, can operate reliably with a few bytes of data exchanged in intervals in the order of seconds or minutes. Differently, the wireless control of autonomous trucks in an open pit mine, or the control of mobile robots in a factory, would typically require more I/O data reported and exchanged in shorter intervals close to the ms level to ensure a high reliability. This variety of very different industrial use cases and application scenarios has led to multiple dedicated wireless solution possibilities considering 5G, B5G, or other advanced wireless communication technologies, combined with diverse CPS and IIoT systems. These integrated solutions may aim not only at enabling flexibility by providing wireless control of an industrial system, but also at collecting and processing data in the cloud for automation, monitoring or process optimization via digital twins, for example. This Special Issue is dedicated to advanced 5G wireless systems in Industry 4.0 scenarios. Consequently, the topics of interest include but are not limited to: 5G architectures targeting operational industrial scenarios; 5G deployments and field trials in operational industrial scenarios; Industrial scenarios and applications requiring 5G connectivity; Advanced integrated industrial wireless control and monitoring systems; Performance evaluation, simulations, and measurements of wireless IIoT systems; IIoT wireless control and monitoring protocol design; Cloud-based IIoT solutions.
Keywords: Industry 4.0; wireless systems; 5G; industrial IoT; cyberphysical systems; cloud computing; system integration; industrial automation; autonomous robots; smart manufacturing; digital twins.