Industry 4.0
Vol. 7 (2022), Issue 1

Table of Contents

  • TECHNOLOGICAL BASIS OF “INDUSTRY 4.0”

    • Structural Network for the Implementation of “Industry 4.0” in Production Processes

      pg(s) 3-6

      In the last ten years, the development and implementation of robotics, sensor and digital technology in the world from introduced us the third industrial revolution to the fourth industrial revolution. In its development strategy, Germany introduces digital technologies in production processes called “Industry 4.0” in 2011. The German example is followed by the following countries: USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Japan and other. Almost all technologically developed countries strive to introduce advanced technologies into production processes in order to maintain their competitive positions in the market. The implementation of the fourth technological revolution depends on a number of new and innovative technological achievements, i.e., the implementation of patents for the basic technologies of Industry 4.0. It is necessary to integrate production processes in all phases of product development, as well as monitoring during its working life through the use of advanced technologies. When automating production processes, we must include intelligent sensors, intelligent robots and connect everything to the Internet using digital technologies that closely monitor the product development process. It is also required to collect large amounts of data through network communication used during the production process. The paper presents a structural network with all levels for the implementation of Industry 4.0 in the production process of the metal industry.

    • Sequence-level knowledge distillation for image captioning model compression

      pg(s) 7-9

      One of the most important tasks on the edge between natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV) is image captioning. There are many papers dedicated to researches in a field of improving image captioning models quality. However, compression of such models in order to be used on mobile devices is quite underexplored. More than that, such an important technique as knowledge distillation which is widely used for model compression isn’t mentioned in almost any of them. To fill this gap we applied the most efficient knowledge distillation approaches to several state-of-the-art image captioning architectures.

    • Application of ergonomic software solutions in the concept of Industry 4.0

      pg(s) 10-13

      Continuous development of technology brings daily improvements implemented in various processes, systems, machines, tools, or equipment. The development of these technologies is currently most often in the synergy of the Industry 4.0 strategy, which forms a solid foundation for modern industrial practice. In this continuously evolving environment of industrial practice, digital concepts for every manufacturing sector come to the fore. Part of every production sphere is the worker, the person forming part of the production process, who undoubtedly requires the same attention as the production system itself. The ergonomics industry deals with the issue of the humanization of technology in the workplace, where it is necessary to ensure the adaptation of the machine to humans and not by suitable working conditions. The presented article is focused on highlighting and describing the basic connections between the general principles of ergonomics, the principles of modern understanding of ergonomics in digital form, which is rapidly developing in the engineering industry in conjunction with Industry 4.0 strategy for practice. The conclusion of the article provides a general summary of the issue with the ideas of developing the concept of ergonomics software solutions in mechanical engineering. This article was supported by research grants VEGA 1/0431/21 and KEGA 004TUKE-4/2020.

    • Ultra-short laser patterning of silk fibroin thin films – a potential scaffold platform in tissue engineering applications

      pg(s) 14-17

      Silk-based scaffolds are specifically investigated in various tissue engineering applications, including for cartilage, bone, nerve, muscle, skin, or corneal regeneration. Guiding muscle cell growth is a challenging task in muscle tissue engineering. In this work, a selfassembled silk fibroin thin films were processed by ultra-short laser radiation to investigate its potential for guiding muscle cell proliferation. The ultra-short laser processing of silk fibroin (SF) have produced micro channels which are suitable for self-assembling and orientation of muscle cells and provides a niche for its attachment. Silk fibroin is an excellent candidate as a biomaterial for tissue engineering applications. Moreover, bacterial biofilm formation on surfaces are associated with persistent microbial contamination. Thus, recently new approaches are needed to impede bacterial surface colonization. Using femtosecond laser irradiation (wavelength 800 nm), laser-induced surface microstucturing is applied to achieve non-thermal, precise, and crack free surface processing with different topographical designs on silk fibroin thin films in order to enhance repelling of bacteria attachment.

  • DOMINANT TECHNOLOGIES IN “INDUSTRY 4.0”

    • Design and 3D printing of holders for XRF analysis requiring small volumes of sample

      pg(s) 18-20

      The preparation of XRF tablets with small amounts of samples produced from various synthesis is a challenging operation. Zeolites and other types of samples with minimal volumes are frequently provided for analysis by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Here we present three types of holders made of PLA (polylactic acid) using commercially available 3D printing technology. The employed material is a bioactive thermoplastic aliphatic polyester extracted from renewable resources and is biodegradable. The holders have reduced diameters of the measured area and can accommodate powders, sheets or solid state samples. The holders are basically three-dimensional plastic models that can be designed and printed based on the provided sample. They are low cost and can be easily applied in practice. The design of the first type of holders is targeting powder samples, allowing the reduction of the required amount from 5-10 g per sample to 1 g. The second type of holders aimed the XRF analyses of textile like materials while the third type of design aimed metal alloys. Examples of the use of the holders are the analyses of coins (here 2 leva is shown) and textile samples containing different metals (e.g. zinc).

  • BUSINESS & “INDUSTRY 4.0”

    • An overview of existing methods for evaluating mobile applications to change user behavior

      pg(s) 21-25

      Advances in behavioral science are growing and technologies and portable devices are evolving. Taking into account the characteristics of human behavior and existing biases and heuristics, better and more effective applications can be designed to influence the acquisition and development of positive habits such as goal setting and achievement. This includes goals such as sports, healthy eating, acquisition of daily routine self-care skills, timely medication and more in order to gain self-confidence, confidence and develop an identity. This article will review existing methods for evaluating and synthesis behavioral interventions. The results of the study will be used to build an application to achieve goals

    • Logistics models – hybrid components

      pg(s) 26-29

      In this report we consider one of the fastest growing aspects of the business namely E-Logistics and its characteristics. The main purpose is to make comparison between E-Logistics and the traditional type of logistics, point out the advantages and the disadvantages, as well as the main principals of integration of the E-Logistics, and the opportunity for choosing hybrids between the different combinations of the principals for both types of logistics.

  • SOCIETY & ”INDUSTRY 4.0”

    • Examination of the category of digitalisation of public services in the Digital Economy and Society Index among the Eastern Enlargement of EU

      pg(s) 30-32

      The European Commission pays particular attention to the digital development of the economy and society. The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) has been an essential tool for measurement and monitoring since 2014. In 2021, the cardinal indicators of the DESI index were aligned with the 2030 Digital Compass targets, which have four key areas: digitally skilled population; secure and sustainable digital infrastructures; the digital transformation of businesses, and digitalisation of public services. In the present study, the authors examined the development of digital public services over the past five years, using σ-convergence to measure differences between the Member States and β-convergence to examine how countries could catch up. The individual indicators under the digital public service category have also been analysed to identify critical areas that need to be developed in the future for the digital public service to catch up with the leading Member States. The areas most needing improvement were user-centricity, transparency, and cyber security.

    • Does Tourism 4.0 answers the needs of baby-boomers?

      pg(s) 33-35

      New technologies have lately decisively entered our personal lives as well as penetrated our businesses, including tourism. Our paper discusses the role of technology in transformation of traditional high-touch services, co-created by tourism personnel, into high-tech services performed by tourists themselves in ‘do-it-your-self” (DIY) way. The participant-observation research method has been applied to present the problem. The results point out certain types of services that are becoming hardly available to tourists without adequate digital equipment and certain technical competence. DIY type of services can be particularly challenging to the ‘silver’ tourists of the baby-boom cohort who are typically not as digitally competent as is younger travelling generation. The findings open serious questioning over general ability of tourists to physically, psychologically and culturally follow the pace of such technological change.

    • The evolution of albedo values of the Earth-atmosphere system under the influence of carbon dioxide pollutant concentrations

      pg(s) 36-41

      The current state of the unique atmosphere-Earth system is influenced both by the composition of constituent gases in the atmosphere and by the accumulation of polluting gases as a result of human anthropogenic activity. A number of scientific forums have found empirically that the anthropogenic accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to a further increase in the average temperature of the atmosphere due to of the increasing of the green-house effect. The processes of photosynthesis consume amounts of carbon dioxide with the subsequent restoration of the necessary oxygen in the atmosphere. At the current stage, the situation is characterized by a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere due to of its great consumption for the burning of fuels used in various industrial fields. The result of the burning of fuels leads to excessive accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The deforestation processes of the terrestrial surfaces decrease the global process of photosynthesis and respectively the amount of oxygen decreases. Deforestation has another negative effect on the ecosystem in general, such as increasing the albedo values of the Earth’s surface. Ocean water also has albedo values that increase over time due to of the accumulation of carbon dioxide absorbed by ocean water. The albedo values are described by an empirical expression suggested in this study. This empirical expression is based on the heat calorimetric method which includes the amount of solar energy together with the energy supplement accumulated in the atmosphere due to of the anthropogenic activity as well as the thermal emission model of the Earth’s “absolutely black body”. as the result of the increase of the atmospheric temperature due to of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the albedo values are calculated over time and their subsequent increase is ascertained. Finally, knowing the albedo values, the values of the effective temperature of the Earth’s surface are calculated which decreases over time. The linear decrease of the thermal emission energy is demonstrated depending on Earth’s albedo values. It is shown that the degree of darkness (dimming) of Earth depends on more and higher values of the infrared wavelength of the emitted thermal energy.