Author(s)

ROSA ARNALDO VALDES, VICTOR FERNANDO GÓMEZ COMENDADOR

Abstract

The whole world is talking about Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution. That is the current trend of higher levels of automation, digitalization and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and cloud computing among others technological assets. With more than 5000 sensors, which generate up to 10 GB of data per second, new modern aircraft engines are a clearly exponent of what digitalization and the internet of aircraft things could furnish, as part of the upcoming Industry 4.0 revolution, in the aviation industry. Called Aviation 4.0, this new era has the potential to help to improve all key performance areas of air transport. Particularly, in an industry where safety levels are so high, and the margins for improvement are extremely tight, this upcoming era might imply a paradigm shift opportunity in safety improvement. In an attempt to define Aviation 4.0 this paper discusses the stages of aviation development from basic VFR flight rules at the Aviation 1.0, up to Aviation 4.0 stage where cyber-physical systems will be designed to assist humans physically tireless, unkind or hazardous work and to take decisions and to complete tasks autonomously. The paper illustrates current real cases of application of Aviation 4.0 concept to increase aviation safety and introduces future possible applications while outlines how they might significantly increase safety levels in aviation.

Keywords

Industry 4.0, Aviation 4.0, digitalization, IOT, big data, cyber-physical