Cloud Robotics for Industry 4.0 - A Literature Review

Abstract

Robots in the industry have been used for decades, much before the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. They have been incorporated into industrial processes in various ways, for example, with mechanic arms, in assembly processes, welding, and painting, among others. Industrial robots are located in restricted access sites and their space is delimited by means of physical barriers and security measures. In recent years, Industry 4.0 proposes the use robots, able to collaborate with persons, known as collaborative robots or “cobots”. Cobots are characterized by cooperating with human work, sharing the same workspace, and able to respond to simple human-machine interactions. In addition, given the benefits of applying cloud computing in Industry 4.0, research has been conducted in applying such technologies to robots. The approach is known as “cloud robotics” and appears as an emerging topic. The objective of this work is to carry out a systematic literature review of cloud robotics for Industry 4.0, in an attempt to present the state of the art in this field and identify opportunities for future research. From the analysis of the results, we observe an emerging interest in this area, and we identify main technologies applied, research themes, and application areas, as well as a special interest on security and safety aspects.