The reliability of well‐performing production processes not only depends on internal but also on external factors in the upstream supply chain. Therefore, companies require fast and reliable information exchange with cooperating organisations. Since existing researches usually put focus on reviewing intra‐organisational solutions, the authors have conducted a survey to capture the current state and needs regarding the inter‐organisational information exchange between German companies. The main outcomes of the authors’ survey are outlined. In a first step, the current status of digitalisation in the companies is analysed. The authors have found that the use and implementation of modern methods correlates positively with the company size. Taking a look on the current methods for inter‐organisational information exchange in a second step, it is seen that only a few companies are completely satisfied with their current methods. Companies see the greatest potential for the improvement of information exchange in standardisation and the increase of required resources. This indicates that companies would be best supported by the development of solutions that can be implemented easily and help to form the heterogeneous landscape of data exchange strategies towards a structured, standardised way.

The results of the authors’ study on digitisation and inter‐organisational information exchange strategies of German SME is published. The current status of the companies is shown and potential for improvements is identified.image

A spectrum of control methods in human–robot interaction was investigated, ranging from direct control to telepresence with a virtual representation of the robot arm. A total of 24 participants used a setup that included a Franka Emika Panda robot arm, Varjo XR‐3 head‐mounted display, and Leap Motion Controller. Participants performed a box‐and‐block task using the bare hand (A), and under five gesture‐controlled robotic operation methods: direct sight (B), sight via video‐feedthrough (C), in a 3D telepresence environment with (D) and without (E) virtual representation of the robot arm, and using a 2D video feed (F). The number of grabbing attempts did not differ significantly between conditions, but local operation (B & C) yielded more transferred blocks than teleoperation (D–F). Teleoperation using a 3D presentation was advantageous compared to teleoperation using a 2D video feed, as demonstrated by lower peak forces and smaller range in gripper heights in conditions D and E compared to condition F, a finding supported by analyses of the head movement activity. Finally, the bare hand yielded the best performance and subjective ratings. In summary, teleoperation using a 3D presentation provided a smoother interaction than teleoperation with a 2D video feed. However, direct human interaction remains a benchmark yet to surpass.

The study examined different control methods in human–robot interaction, including augmented reality and digital twins. Direct control led to more transferred blocks than teleoperation, with teleoperation using a 3D representation proving more efficient than teleoperation with a 2D video feed. However, direct human interaction produced the best results and user ratings.image

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, many certain technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Service (IoS) have been implemented for the improvement of current system. However, most of them did not ensure the real‐time performance which is inevitable for modern motion systems. The implementation of Ethernet‐based protocol, rapid data exchange and synchronised transmission are proper for the novelties of slave controller. An integration of the decentralised network into the motion control system is introduced firstly. To demonstrate the conceptual design, some descriptions of motivations and related definitions are explained. Then, the structure of hardware components and internal connections are mentioned. Later, the software architecture including the data exchange and flowchart of motion program, is described in detail. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach, some technical analysis of timing synchronisation and tracking deviation between our method and the others are carried out. In addition, several practical validations are conducted in the same conditions. The contributions of the authors are (i) to firstly present the concept of controller design using the real‐time technology, (ii) to illuminate both hardware design and software design of the proposed approach and (iii) to analyse the superior performance in delay time between our method and the others as well as validate the real‐world results to prove the effectiveness and feasibility. From the authors’ achievement, it is observed that these results can be broadly purposeful to the sustainable development of Industry 4.0.

The contributions of our works are (i) to firstly present the concept of controller design using the real‐time technology, (ii) to illuminate both hardware design and software design of the proposed approach and (iii) to analyse the superior performance in delay time between our method and the others as well as validate the real‐world results to prove the effectiveness and feasibility.image

OpenAI's ChatGPT (GPT‐4) ushers in a superior mode of computer interaction through natural language dialogues. Notably, it generates not only engaging dialogues but also codes aligned to queries and requirements. The potential of ChatGPT in hardware implementation via natural language is implemented and a strategy for “asking the right questions” is outlined. The versatility of ChatGPT is demonstrated through three mainstream hardware designs – systolic array, ResNet and MobileNet accelerators – comparing these with hand‐coded designs. The evaluation metrics include design quality, design efforts, and limitations of code generated by ChatGPT/GPT‐4/Cursor against prevalent High‐Level Synthesis or hand‐coded HDL designs. Consequently, a novel design workflow is proposed and the constraints of using GPT, particularly in AI accelerators, are highlighted.

This paper tests the possibility of using the latest AI chatbot, ChatGPT (GPT‐4) to do hardware design on FPGAs using Natural Language as the entry point. It is validated that the usage of GPT‐4 can potentially increase the speed of doing the initial design. However, we also found that because the GPT‐4 is an AI trained for chatting specifically, instead of for hardware design, it does not understand the hardware design concept even if it can write Verilog HDL or VHDL. We also use 3 case studies to show the functionality and limitations of the GPT‐4, which are the mainstream accelerators for ResNet, MobileNet and a systolic array for general‐purpose CNN acceleration.image

3D meshes simplification plays an important role in many industrial domains. The two goals of Delaunay mesh simplification are maintaining high geometric fidelity and reducing mesh complexity. However, they are conflicting and cannot solved by gradient. Such limitation prevents existing Delaunay mesh simplification to obtain a small enough number of vertices and promising fidelity at the same time. To address these issues, this paper proposes an evolutionary multi‐objective approach for Delaunay mesh simplification. Firstly, the authors replace the previous fixed error‐bound threshold by the designed adaptive segment‐specific thresholds. Secondly, a constrained simplification is performed through a series of edge collapses that satisfy both Delaunay and error constraints. Next, the non‐dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA‐II) is employed to solve the multi‐objective problem to search for the optimal trade‐off threshold sequences. Finally, a fine‐tuning method is designed to further enhance the geometric fidelity of the simplified mesh. Experimental results demonstrate that the authors’ method consistently achieves a satisfactory balance between the approximation error and number of vertices, outperforming existing state‐of‐the‐art methods.

This paper addresses the Delaunay mesh simplification from an evolutionary multi‐objective viewpoint.image