Leveling up Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is all about transforming manufacturing processes with advances in smart capabilities, data connectivity, and automation. It encompasses devices from sensors that capture data to motors and motor control and power devices that have a big impact on efficiency. Edge computing is also playing a larger role to combat challenges around latency, particularly in safety critical applications, and cybersecurity is critical for protecting connected devices.
The March/April issue covers some of the key components that are vital to Industry 4.0, from new sensing approaches such as event-based sensing that enable faster and more reliable decisions to the latest designs in power devices to deliver higher efficiency in industrial systems. We also look at designing edge AI for industrial and industrial IoT systems for cybersecurity.
Machine vision plays a big role in industrial automation applications, ranging from object tracking to vibration monitoring. Prophesee believes the industry should be rethinking machine vision in industrial automation, addressing challenges around latency, data processing, and decision-making.
“As industrial systems move toward higher levels of automation and autonomy, vision is becoming a core component of the perception pipeline,” said Thibaut Willeman, head of business development and go-to-market at Prophesee.
This is driving the demand for new sensing approaches that address these challenges: reducing latency, limiting unnecessary data, and enabling faster and more reliable decisions, he added.
Willeman explains how event-based vision addresses these challenges: “By mimicking biological vision, this technology utilizes efficient sensing and collection techniques that capture changes within a specific scene. This reduces processing requirements compared with traditional frame-based methods while revealing details that conventional systems miss, opening new possibilities for precision and performance in industrial applications.”
Applications that can benefit from event-based vision include industrial automation, IoT, automotive, and edge applications.
Another component area that has a large impact on applications in the Industry 4.0 world is power electronics. As factories, energy systems, and data centers get smarter and more connected, it requires more efficient power solutions that offer high power density, said Stefano Lovati, contributing writer.
Lovati discusses some of the latest approaches to designing, packaging, and controlling power devices to deliver higher efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. One of the most significant changes introduced in the power system is the move to 800-VDC distribution in data centers.
There is also a key focus on wide-bandgap materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). SiC can operate efficiently and provide high reliability in high-voltage and high-power environments, thanks to its high breakdown voltage, low switching losses, and high thermal conductivity, while GaN, suited for low- and medium-voltage applications, can switch at high frequencies, up to the megahertz range, with very low power loss, making power converters more efficient and smaller and requiring less cooling, Lovati said.
In addition, GaN is delivering on integration, which is helping to simplify power design.
Another big element of implementing smart manufacturing within Industry 4.0 is motor control ICs and motor drives. Similar to power devices, a big challenge is efficiency. “About 50% of global energy consumption is due to electric motors, and therefore, even a moderate improvement in efficiency can provide meaningful economic benefits, helping reduce the carbon footprint,” Lovati reports.
These modern industrial motor solutions are smart and connected with advanced capabilities to identify irregularities such as excessive heat or voltage surges and respond automatically. Lovati said the introduction of AI technologies brings this function to the next level, allowing predictive maintenance and reducing factory downtime.
He covers everything from motor driver architecture and connectivity in smart motor control to AI and ML integration and software tools.
Edge computing is becoming critical for real-time data processing in industrial automation. Industrial manufacturing systems require real-time decision-making, adaptive control, and autonomous operation, but many cloud-dependent architectures can’t deliver the millisecond response required for safety-critical functions such as robotic-collision avoidance, in-line quality inspection, and emergency shutdown, said Sam Al-Attiyah, head of machine learning at Infineon Technologies AG.
Al-Attiyah said edge AI addresses high-performance and low-latency requirements by embedding intelligence directly into industrial devices and enabling local processing to support machine-vision workloads for real-time defect detection, adaptive process control, and responsive human-machine interfaces that react instantly to dynamic conditions.
He outlines an approach to designing edge AI systems for industrial applications, covering everything from requirements analysis to deployment and maintenance.
Security is also a growing concern and an industry requirement as more devices are connected in industrial environments. Francesco Vaiani, senior product manager at Seco, looks at how designing for industrial IoT systems is changing to meet the European Cyber Resilience Act and the cybersecurity extension of the Radio Equipment Directive. This marks a structural shift in how connected products must be designed, documented, and maintained, he said.
For industrial OEMs, this means more than documentation updates and demands architectural decisions that remain technically defensible throughout the operational lifetime of the device, which often exceeds 10 years, Vaiani said.
Also in this issue, we select the top 10 DC/DC converters introduced over the past year. DC/DC converter manufacturers continue to focus on two big areas: delivering higher efficiency and offering greater flexibility.
Don’t miss the APEC 2026 product roundup. This annual conference showcases the latest in power electronics devices and solutions across industries. Some of these power devices highlight major technology advances in areas such as topologies and packaging, along with meeting growing demand for higher efficiency and higher power density. They also address system complexity by helping to simplify power design.
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