Applying AI in the Area of Automation Systems: Overview and Challenges

Modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) research is having a huge impact in many technological domains. As in many other research areas, the application of AI in smart factories has been a key factor in the contribution to the "smartness". Every aspect of industrial automation has been affected by the introduction of AI: the usage of AI solutions allows to introduce advanced capabilities for optimizing processes, increasing efficiency, and reducing costs. This paper analyzes some relevant aspects of the application and the impact of AI solutions on the current scenario of smart factories and industrial automation. We identify a list of significant topics related to this domain, and we report the main aspects related to them. The dissertation includes an initial quantitative analysis of the relevance of these topics in the scientific publications, a detailed description of the characteristics of the topics, and a discussion of the related challenges.