Automation 5.0: The Key to Systems Intelligence and Industry 5.0

Automation has come a long way since the early days of mechanization, i.e., the process of working exclusively by hand or using animals to work with machinery. The rise of steam engines and water wheels represented the first generation of industry, which is now called Industry 1.0. Subsequently, Industry 2.0 witnessed the development of electric power and assembly lines. Later on, programmable logic controllers and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) were the new productivity tools in Industry 3.0, which enabled precise and consistent production. In recent years, Industry 4.0 absorbed the latest technologies of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data, making production processes integrated, interconnected, and smart. Nowadays, Industry 5.0 has been proposed, which emphasizes human-centric automation. Specifically, the new concept of automation in Industry 5.0, named Automation 5.0, is no longer about how to create machinery to replace humans. Instead, it aims to reach organic interactions and cooperation between humans and machines, meeting the goal of “6S” - Safety, Security, Sustainability, Sensitivity, Service, and Smartness [1]–[4] - and the overall objective of deploying automation for the better, human-friendly, and smarter industry.