What is Industry 5.0?

Industry 5.0 is set to change the manufacturing landscape by focusing on a more human-centric and sustainable way of manufacturing products. Industry 5.0 will still have industrial automation using the same robot, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced technologies used in Industry 4.0, but without the societal disruption that significantly reduces the human workforce.

The transition toward the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is still ongoing in many sectors, but even though Industry 4.0 has still not been fully adopted, the concept of a fifth industrial revolution (Industry 5.0) is being established. While this transition to a new “industrial revolution” may seem premature, Industry 5.0 could be seen as an extension of Industry 4.0 but with more human elements and a way of providing a human aspect to industrial automation. Transitioning to Industry 5.0 while Industry 4.0 is ongoing could be seen as a good thing because it means less personnel retraining.

Industry 4.0 automation has increased productivity across many sectors, but there are still many areas where robotics and humans need to closely work together. Industry 5.0 is focused on keeping humans in the loop for decision-making while ensuring the advanced technologies that have improved the production output and product quality continue to evolve.

Additionally, there has been some pushback for a more human-centric ecosystem. For example, the European Union (EU) wants to avoid mass job disruptions and upskilling challenges via more human-robot collaborative manufacturing. The new paradigm between Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 aims to bring a higher level of sustainability to manufacturing as well.

Industry 5.0 will keep the same advanced technologies, such as IoT sensors, AI, digital twins, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and additive manufacturing that were brought into manufacturing lines during Industry 4.0, but with additional human-in-the-loop checkpoints. These checkpoints will enable humans to work within automated workflows to quickly assess design directions, make design iterations, employ manufacturing process changes, and evaluate the effects of changing supply chains.

One goal of Industry 5.0 is for humans and robots to work alongside each other through collaborative robots (cobots) and advanced assistance robots to produce personalized and customized products at scale. This could take the form of one production line with AI-enabled robots located in different areas and creating the same base product, but with a human at the end of the line modifying some of the final parts and creating custom products. In this case, automated robots are still doing the majority of the work and highly repetitive tasks, but human workers are providing the final input.

For Industry 5.0 to be successful in creating a new mass production environment that focuses on worker well-being and human creativity, as well as advanced automation, there are a number key pillars that the transition needs to revolve around.

The three main pillars are:

Human Centricity

The new technology being created will recognize the importance of humans in modern, automated manufacturing environments. Transitioning toward a more human-centric approach may also help reduce the number of jobs lost to AI-enabled automation.

Sustainability

Industry 4.0 has some elements of sustainability, particularly around using low carbon emitting fuels and running machines sustainably. Industry 5.0 will take it to the next level through designing products with a circular economy in mind. One of the goals of Industry 5.0 is to design products with forethought on which parts can be reused, re-engineered, or need replacing at the end of their first usable life.

Adaptable and Robust Production Systems

Industry 5.0 will need to use adaptable, robust production systems where decisions are made by both AI and humans. Utilizing a human-in-the-loop system will help optimize assembly lines and ensure maximum efficiency, but it will also allow humans to exercise judgment to prevent processes from endangering the plant or the workforce. This will increase robustness and resilience in production processes while ensuring safer working environments.

With any new technology implementation and technological revolution, there are always positives and negatives. Ever since the first industrial revolution, each new phase has brought benefits but also challenges that need to be managed as society advances. Industry 5.0 is no different, but instead of trying to replace robotic and smart technology, it focuses in incorporating them in new ways.

Benefits of Industry 5.0

• Combined human-robot collaboration and technology developments, leading to advanced systems that are designed to work in proximity to human beings through force-limiting technologies when humans are nearby
• Increased productivity because robots can still do a lot of the “heavy lifting” tasks, such as welding or lifting, leaving humans to do the more creative tasks and assignments that require engineering judgment—such as quality control and customization decisions
• Advanced smart robotics, in which the AI robots can watch humans to learn what movements and forces were used to perform a task to better optimize their own robotic operations
• Reduced worker exhaustion and fatigue by robots performing the manual labor tasks
• Enhanced building of sustainability and circular economy principles directly into the core of product design rather than as an afterthought
• Increased number of personalized products reaching consumers
• Upskilled workforce so that they work alongside the latest technologies
• Improved employee satisfaction as they can work on more stimulating and creative tasks rather than mundane, repetitive tasks

Challenges of Adopting Industry 5.0 Processes

• New technologies and the human element need to be adopted concurrently, something that hasn’t happened in Industry 4.0, so there will need to be a shift in the way organizations think and operate to adopt Industry 5.0 principles
• Learning curves for employees working with different technologies may take some time
• Human workers need to feel empowered by the new technologies, otherwise there may be a push back to learning how to use them or an unwillingness to embrace change
• New governance strategies will need to be adopted by organizations because not everyone will need to have a full working knowledge of all the technologies and processes, e.g. a maintenance technician may only need to know about predictive maintenance and the user interface, whereas a process engineer may need to dive further into digital transformation concepts.
• There needs to be a slow transition to limit adoption resistance by workers who believe that they are being replaced or their job is being threatened
• New worker laws will need to be written to better understand what falls under the rights and privileges of workers and what constitutes a robotic environment

Implementing Industry 5.0 frameworks is going to have an impact across many industries, including automotive, healthcare, and robotics, and various manufacturing industries. In manufacturing applications, equipment will not only be able to undergo predictive maintenance operations like in Industry 4.0, but also will enable the components of spent machinery to be used in the next generation of machinery, vehicles, and technology (by being built with circularity in mind). From a manufacturing perspective, this will reduce waste, improve energy consumption, and reduce long-term costs.

In the healthcare space, smart systems will be able to look at past patient records to obtain an understanding of all the different possible diagnoses for a patient. Human doctors can then make a final decision using their contextual expertise. Doctors can also work inside digital twins to look at human organs and simulate surgical procedures to see how different organs will behave during a procedure — before the procedure is performed on a patient — reducing the risk of surgery.

Agentic AI can also be used to assist different workers in a sandbox-style testing environment. Human workers can trial different scenarios and decisions to see the outcomes of different approaches and whether they have a positive impact across the business. These outcomes can then be used to create more effective business strategies.

In the age of Industry 5.0, human workers should have access to digital twin software that will enable them to practice and better understand the systems they are working with, understand any potential failure modes, and build knowledge about potential scenarios that will put the factory floor at risk.

Simulation software, such as the Ansys Twin Builder simulation-based digital twin platform and Ansys TwinAI digital twin software powered by AI, can not only help generate these environments but also be used across the various design stages of a product to ensure an optimal design long before prototyping begins. Because entire manufacturing facilities can be simulated in digital twins, they can be used from the first iterative design cycle through to the actual manufacturing environment in which a product will be built (allowing tweaks to be made before the physical systems are built and/or have their parameters changed). These digital twins can also help train workers to better understand the systems they work with, thereby breaking down the challenges of worker upskilling into more manageable training environments. Digital twins also help train workers on sensitive equipment that would otherwise cause plants to shut down or reduce production output, all without causing factory downtime.

For the robots and cobots themselves that will be used in Industry 5.0 — which are a combination of many materials, software, and technologies — Ansys Fluent fluid simulation software, Ansys Mechanical structural finite element analysis software, and the Ansys Maxwell advanced electromagnetic field solver can be used to design the structure of these robots and how these technologies interplay. This allows robots to be designed, deployed, and validated in a simulation environment without the need for extensive, expensive prototyping.

If you’d like to find out more about how different simulation tools can help you to not only design new products and manage industrial systems, but to also train your workforce in the age of Industry 5.0, then get in touch with our technical experts today to discover the best simulation approaches for your needs.

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