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The purpose of this paper is to describe how emerging open standards are replacing traditional industrial networks. Current industrial Ethernet networks are not interoperable; thus, limiting the potential capabilities for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). There is no forthcoming new generation fieldbus standard to integrate into the IIoT and Industry 4.0 revolution. The open platform communications unified architecture (OPC UA) time-sensitive networking (TSN) is a potential vendor-independent successor technology for the factory network. The OPC UA is a data exchange standard for industrial communication, and TSN is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standard for Ethernet that supports real-time behaviour. The merging of these open standard solutions can facilitate cross-vendor interoperability for Industry 4.0 and IIoT products.

A brief review of the history of the fieldbus standards is presented, which highlights the shortcomings for current industrial systems in meeting converged traffic solutions. An experimental system for the OPC UA TSN is described to demonstrate an approach to developing a three-layer factory network system with an emphasis on the field layer.

From the multitude of existing industrial network schemes, there is a convergence pathway in solutions based on TSN Ethernet and OPC UA. At the field level, basic timing measurements in this paper show that the OPC UA TSN can meet the basic critical timing requirements for a fieldbus network.

This paper uniquely focuses on the specific fieldbus standards elements of industrial networks evolution and traces the developments from the early history to the current developing integration in IIoT context.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new simplified numerical model, based on a very compact semi-empirical formulation, able to simulate the fluid dynamics behaviors of an electrohydraulic servovalve taking into account several effects due to valve geometry (e.g. flow leakage between spool and sleeve) and operating conditions (e.g. variable supply pressure or water hammer).

The proposed model simulates the valve performance through a simplified representation, deriving from the linearized approach based on pressure and flow gains, but able to evaluate the mutual interaction between boundary conditions, pressure saturation and leak assessment. Its performance was evaluated comparing with other fluid dynamics numerical models (a detailed physics-based high-fidelity one and other simplified models available in the literature).

Although still showing some limitations attributable to its simplified formulation, the proposed model overcomes several deficiencies typical of the most common fluid dynamic models available in the literature, describing the water hammer and the nonlinear dependence of the delivery differential pressure with the spool displacement.

Although still based on a simplified formulation with reduced computational costs, the proposed model introduces a new nonlinear approach that, approximating with suitable precision the pressure-flow fluid dynamic characteristic of a servovalve, overcomes the shortcomings typical of such models.

Steer-by-wire (SBW) system mainly relies on sensors, controllers and motors to replace the traditionally mechanical transmission mechanism to realize steering functions. However, the sensors in the SBW system are particularly vulnerable to external influences, which can cause systemic faults, leading to poor steering performance and even system instability. Therefore, this paper aims to adopt a fault-tolerant control method to solve the safety problem of the SBW system caused by sensors failure.

This paper proposes an active fault-tolerant control framework to deal with sensors failure in the SBW system by hierarchically introducing fault observer, fault estimator, fault reconstructor. Firstly, the fault observer is used to obtain the observation output of the SBW system and then obtain the residual between the observation output and the SBW system output. And then judge whether the SBW system fails according to the residual. Secondly, dependent on the residual obtained by the fault observer, a fault estimator is designed using bounded real lemma and regional pole configuration to estimate the amplitude and time-varying characteristics of the faulty sensor. Eventually, a fault reconstructor is designed based on the estimation value of sensors fault obtained by the fault estimator and SBW system output to tolerate the faulty sensor.

The numerical analysis shows that the fault observer can be rapidly activated to detect the fault while the sensors fault occurs. Moreover, the estimation accuracy of the fault estimator can reach to 98%, and the fault reconstructor can make the faulty SBW system to retain the steering characteristics, comparing to those of the fault-free SBW system. In addition, it was verified for the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control framework.

As the SBW fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control in this paper only carry out numerical simulation research on sensors faults in matrix and laboratory/Simulink, the subsequent hardware in the loop test is needed for further verification.

Aiming at the SBW system with parameter perturbation and sensors failure, this paper proposes an active fault-tolerant control framework, which integrates fault observer, fault estimator and fault reconstructor so that the steering performance of SBW system with sensors faults is basically consistent with that of the fault-free SBW system.

The amount of features in handwritten digit data is often very large due to the different aspects in personal handwriting, leading to high-dimensional data. Therefore, the employment of a feature selection algorithm becomes crucial for successful classification modeling, because the inclusion of irrelevant or redundant features can mislead the modeling algorithms, resulting in overfitting and decrease in efficiency.

The minimum redundancy and maximum relevance (mRMR) and the recursive feature elimination (RFE) are two frequently used feature selection algorithms. While mRMR is capable of identifying a subset of features that are highly relevant to the targeted classification variable, mRMR still carries the weakness of capturing redundant features along with the algorithm. On the other hand, RFE is flawed by the fact that those features selected by RFE are not ranked by importance, albeit RFE can effectively eliminate the less important features and exclude redundant features.

The hybrid method was exemplified in a binary classification between digits “4” and “9” and between digits “6” and “8” from a multiple features dataset. The result showed that the hybrid mRMR +  support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVMRFE) is better than both the sole support vector machine (SVM) and mRMR.

In view of the respective strength and deficiency mRMR and RFE, this study combined both these methods and used an SVM as the underlying classifier anticipating the mRMR to make an excellent complement to the SVMRFE.

The introduction of quality management Internet of things (QM IoT) can help food supply chain members to enhance real-time visibility, quality, safety and efficiency of products and processes. Current literature indicates three main research gaps, including a lack of studies in QM IoT in the food supply chain, the vagueness of integrative adoption of new technology framework and deficient research covering both adoption attitude and intention in the same model. This study aims to propose an analysis model based on the technological–organizational–environmental (TOE) framework and reinforced by the collaborative structure to capture the importance of the supply chain network.

The partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the impacts of the adoption factors on QM IoT adoption attitude and intention among 197 respondents in food manufacturing in Thailand.

The results indicated that compatibility, trialability, adaptive capacity, innovative capability, executive support, value chain partner pressure, presence of service provider and information sharing significantly impacted the attitude toward QM IoT adoption, while adaptive capability, innovative capability and information sharing directly influenced the QM IoT adoption intention. Furthermore, the attitude toward QM IoT adoption positively impacted the QM IoT adoption intention.

This study contributed to academicians by proposing a more solid adoption framework for QM IoT area. In addition, the business practitioners could actively prepare themselves for the QM IoT adoption, whereas the service providers could provide better and suitable service.

This research contributes to the building of a more solid framework and indicates significant factors that impact the attitude toward QM IoT adoption and adoption intention.

At the US passenger stations, train operations approaching terminating tracks rely on the engineer’s compliant behavior to safely stop before the end of the tracks. Noncompliance actions from the disengaged or inattentive engineers would result in hazards to train passengers, train crewmembers and bystanders at passenger stations. Over the past decade, a series of end-of-track collisions occurred at passenger stations with substantial property damage and casualties. This study’s developed systemic model and discussions present policymakers, railway practitioners and academic researchers with a flexible approach for qualitatively assessing railroad safety.

To achieve a system-based, micro-level analysis of end-of-track accidents and eventually promote the safety level of passenger stations, the systems-theoretic accident modeling and processes (STAMP), as a practical systematic accident model widely used in the complex systems, is developed in view of environmental factors, human errors, organizational factors and mechanical failures in this complex socio-technical system.

The developed STAMP accident model and analytical results qualitatively provide an explicit understanding of the system hazards, constraints and hierarchical control structure of train operations on terminating tracks in the US passenger stations. Furthermore, the safety recommendations and practical options related to obstructive sleep apnea screening, positive train control-based collision avoidance mechanisms, robust system safety program plans and bumping posts are proposed and evaluated using the STAMP approach.

The findings from STAMP-based analysis can serve as valid references for policymakers, government accident investigators, railway practitioners and academic researchers. Ultimately, they can contribute to establishing effective emergent measures for train operations at passenger stations and promote the level of safety necessary to protect the public. The STAMP approach could be adapted to analyze various other rail safety systems that aim to ultimately improve the safety level of railroad systems.

Multinational business deliver value via multiple sites with similar operational capacities. The age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) delivers significant opportunities for the deployment of digital tools for business optimization. Therefore, this study aims to study the Industry 4.0 implementation for multinationals.

The key objective of this research is multi-site systems integration using a reproducible, modular and standardized “Cyber Physical System (CPS) as-a-Service”.

A best practice reference architecture is adopted to guide the design and delivery of a pioneering CPS multi-site deployment. The CPS deployed is a cloud-based platform adopted to enable all manufacturing areas within a multinational energy and petrochemical company. A methodology is developed to quantify the system environmental and sustainability benefits focusing on reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and energy consumption. These results demonstrate the benefits of standardization, replication and digital enablement for multinational businesses.

The research illustrates the ability to design a single system, reproducible for multiple sites. This research also illustrates the beneficial impact of system reuse due to reduced environmental impact from lower CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. The paper assists organizations in deploying complex systems while addressing multinational systems implementation constraints and standardization.

Technology-enabled business-to-business (B2B) services contribute the largest share to GDP growth and are fundamental for an economy’s value creation. This article aims to identify key service- and digital technology-driven B2B innovation modes and proposes a research agenda for further exploration.

This conceptual paper adopts a techno-demarcation view on service innovation, encompassing three core dimensions: service offering (the service product, or the “what”), service process (the “how”) and service ecosystem (the “who/for whom”). It delineates the implications of three digital technologies – the internet-of-things (IoT), intelligent automation (IA) and digital platforms – for service innovation across these core dimensions in B2B markets.

Digital technology has immense potential ramifications for value creation by reshaping all three core dimensions of service innovation. Specifically, IoT can transform physical resources into reconfigurable service products, IA can augment and automate a rapidly expanding array of service processes, while digital platforms provide the technical and organizational infrastructure for the integration of resources and stakeholders within service ecosystems.

This study suggests an agenda with six themes for further research, each linked to one or more of the three service innovation dimensions. They are (1) new recurring revenue models, (2) service innovation in the metaverse, (3) scaling up service innovations, (4) ecosystem innovations, (5) power dependency and lock-in effects and (6) security and responsibility in digital domains.

A positive outlook on the impact of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on sustainability prevails in the literature. However, some studies have highlighted potential areas of concern that have not yet been systematically addressed. The goal of this study is to challenge the assumption of a sustainable Fourth Industrial Revolution by (1) identifying the possible unintended negative impacts of I4.0 technologies on sustainability; (2) highlighting the underlying motivations and potential actions to mitigate such impacts; and (3) developing and evaluating alternative assumptions on the impacts of I4.0 technologies on sustainability.

Building on a problematization approach, a systematic literature review was conducted to develop potential alternative assumptions about the negative impacts of I4.0 on sustainability. Then, a Delphi study was carried out with 43 experts from academia and practice to evaluate the alternative assumptions. Two rounds of data collection were performed until reaching the convergence or stability of the responses.

The results highlight various unintended negative effects on environmental and social aspects that challenge the literature. The reasons behind the high/low probability of occurrence, the severity of each impact in the next five years and corrective actions are also identified. Unintended negative environmental effects are less controversial than social effects and are therefore more likely to generate widely accepted theoretical propositions. Finally, the alternative hypothesis ground is partially accepted by the panel, indicating that the problematization process has effectively opened up new perspectives for analysis.

This study is one of the few to systematically problematize the assumptions of the I4.0 and sustainability literature, generating research propositions that reveal several avenues for future research.

AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) is lacking a RM (Reference Model) to serve as an abstraction of the domain. Therefore, to help implement new architectures established on the prior experiences of the designer’s expertise and former competences, in this paper, we propose a novel approach of an AAL RM. Our objective is to handle the resolution of conflicts that appear between the developers, and give an overview of the basis for implementing concrete software architectures for different families of AAL applications. Our proposed RM is a standardized clarification for developers to apply in the process of the design and implementation. We illuminate the AAL domain fundamental dimensions and we established a formal RM with an infrastructure that could survive the domain’s progression. To achieve integrated system-of-systems composed of systems, subsystems and components, our RM describes a standard and regulated structure to be established. High-level elements, essential properties and characteristics that must appear in the application’s design are described and illustrated in this work.