Industrial Robots Migration Towards Industry 4.0 Components

The use of industrial robots rises as a key element for the fourth industrial revolution also known as industry 4.0. Nevertheless, a common characteristic of current industry 4.0 applications and robotic systems is the lack of a proper standardization framework which is one of the pillars of said revolution. In response, this paper proposes a procedure for turning industrial robots into Industry 4.0 components according to the guidelines of the Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). The defined procedure is applied for two different industrial robots leading to robotic systems that can be integrated into smart factories of industry 4.0 with new levels of interoperability. This allows to offer new value opportunities based on data analysis.