ABSTRACT
The advent of future internet technologies, including cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), provides essential support to fulfilling these requirements and enhancing the efficiency and performance of factory processes. The Alliance for IoT Innovation has established a working group, which is dedicated to smart manufacturing based on IoT technologies. Likewise, a significant number of projects of the FP7 and H2020 programme have been dealing with the application and deployment of advanced IoT technologies for factory automation and virtual manufacturing chains. This chapter presents several of these initiatives in the form of IoT technologies and related applications. It illustrates IoT technologies that can support virtual manufacturing chains and decentralized factory automation, including related future internet technologies such as edge/cloud computing and BigData analytics. The chapter illustrates the role of IoT technologies in the scope of EU’s digital industry agenda with particular emphasis on the use of IoT platforms for virtual manufacturing.
