Foresight formulation in innovative production, automation and control systems

Purpose - This paper aims to define imminent and future key aspects in innovative production machines and systems but more specifically to focus on the automation and control aspects. Design/methodology/approach - The foresight analysis is based on the state-of-the-art of current manufacturing technologies with a setup of key enabling features and a roadmap research. Findings - The paper finds that more integration of current and future technology development is required to build a strong platform for various applications featured with interoperability, trust, security and protection. Autonomy and close collaboration aspects in machines remain as crucial targets for the near future. An immediate action is required on smart strategies for the design patterns and agents to enable intuitive components for high quality dynamic user interfaces. This will allow rapid configuration and adaptation to new manufacturing tasks with highly improved machine learning. Originality/val ue - The paper describes the future of key aspects required to move the production, automation and control systems forward.