The impact of Disruptive technologies like Industrial Internet of Things, Collaborative Robots & AI (Artificial Intelligence) for driving digital transformation for a sustainable environment

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been emerging as the next big thing in everyday life. It is envisioned that billions of physical things or objects will be outfitted with various kinds of sensors & actuators interconnected via a heterogeneous network enabled by technologies such as wireless sensors (environmental, wearable & implantable) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The concept of IoT was put forward in 1999 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the Auto-ID Center. It is defined as a dynamic global network of physical & virtual things that have identities, physical attributes & intelligence. 

Loosely being termed the next industrial revolution, systems are being connected intelligently within the entire value chain and support activities of manufacturing; the new face is known as the “Industrial Internet of Things” or Industry 5.0. The Industrial Internet of Things is the evolution of cyber-physical systems, representing the fifth industrial revolution on the road to an end-to-end value chain with industrial IOT & decentralized intelligence in manufacturing, preventive maintenance, production, logistics & industry, particularly in smart factories, where products and services connect, collect data, communicate with users, and offer additional services. Over the next decade, the Industrial Internet of Things is expected to add $14.2 trillion to the world economy and contribute towards a sustainable environment.

AI is another technology making a big impact on our everyday life. Coupled with robotics, AI has entered our homes as smart vacuum cleaners, self-driving vehicles, and smart cranes. In the medical field, AI is being used to provide decision support for medical doctors and researchers for the diagnosis of chronic diseases in addition to the latest advances in bio-implantable medical devices (IMDS) for monitoring patients using telemedicine and the accompanying challenges. In the context of utilizing disruptive technologies like collaborative robots (COBOTS) for driving digital transformation, the most demanding application is in Triage for delivering healthcare on the spot, where state-of-the-art advancements in AI and Robotics are utilized to boost the quality of healthcare delivered in the case of disasters such as in the case of pandemics like the Cov-19, particularly for developing countries.