The discipline of process control and automation has seen many changes over the years, with the advent of new technologies, industrial practices and legislation. Today we recognise those changes as all being components of the industrial internet of things (IIoT).
Whilst much attention and energy is being paid to the underpinning technologies, the more interesting and challenging question is how the process industries will change and what the role of automation will become. Many commentators talk about being on the verge of a fourth industrial revolution – a change as profound as electrification or computers. Automation will be at the heart of this change, and information and data will drive it, but it won’t be automation in the form that we know it today.
This conference will examine the technologies that underpin the IIoT, and will explore the implication of the fourth industrial revolution for the process industries that we serve. The event will encourage the cross fertilisation of ideas, expertise and technologies by bringing together the researchers from our strong academic base, practitioners with in-depth experience of the traditional process control sectors, and representatives from new domains of application and manufacturing sectors.
Vox Conference Centre, Level 2Birmingham, United Kingdom
