The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
Industry 4.0 has been defined as “a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, including cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing and creating the smart factory”.
A smart factory is a highly digitized and connected production facility that relies on smart manufacturing. Thought to be the so-called factory of the future and still in its infancy, the concept of the smart factory is considered an important outcome of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0.