Search

Inspired by the natural intelligence of humans and bio-evolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen accelerated growth since the beginning of the 21st century. Successful AI applications have been broadly reported, with Industry 4.0 providing a thematic platform for AI-related research and development in manufacturing. This paper highlights applications of AI in manufacturing, ranging from production system design and planning to process modeling, optimization, quality assurance, maintenance, automated assembly and disassembly. In addition, the paper presents an overview of representative manufacturing problems and matching AI solutions, and a perspective of future research to leverage AI towards the realization of smart manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray computed tomography (XCT) has been shown to be a reliable tool for quality inspection, material evaluation, and dimensional measurement tasks across diverse academic and industrial applications. In recent years, the integration of machine learning and deep learning techniques have ushered new advances in the industrial computed tomography domain spanning multiple facets, including image reconstruction, segmentation, and feature characterization. This review paper comprehensively surveys the current state-of-the-art machine learning and deep learning applications throughout the entire XCT workflow. Additionally, we explore relevant developments in the medical imaging domain, evaluating their implications for industrial computed tomography. In conclusion, we identify potential future research, drawing insights from existing research gaps in the domain and recent advancements in artificial intelligence. Notably, we underscore the importance of uncertainty quantification and model explainability for further acceptance of artificial intelligence techniques in the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 has brought modernization to the production system through the network integration of the constituent entities which, combined with the evolution of information technology, has enabled an increase in productivity, product quality, optimization of production costs, and product customization to customer needs. Despite the complexity of human thought, artificial intelligence tries to replicate it in algorithms, creating models capable of processing databases with a high volume of information, and generating valuable information for decision making. Within this area, there are subfields, such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning, which, through mathematical models, define patterns to predict output data from known input data. In addition to this type of algorithm, there are metaheuristic models capable of optimizing the parameters required in Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms. These intelligent systems have applications in various areas such as industry, construction, health, logistics processes, and maintenance management, among others. This paper focuses on Artificial Intelligence models addressing Industry 4.0 approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warehouse design and planning involve complex decisions on receiving, storage, order picking and shipping products (i.e., stock-keeping units - SKUs) and can affect the performance of entire supply chains. With the advancement of Industry 4.0 and increased data availability, high-computing power, and ample storage capacity, Machine Learning (ML) has become an appealing technology to address warehouse planning challenges such as Storage Location Assignment Problems (SLAP) and Order Picking Problems (OPP) for intelligent warehousing management. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of ML applied to Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) through the analysis of recent research application articles. A mapping to classify the scientific literature in this new research area, including ML methods, algorithms, data sources and use cases of ML-aided WMS, as well as further research perspectives and challenges, are introduced. Preliminary results suggest that the possible research areas in ML-WMS are still incipient and need to be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to optimize processes. The main goal of the manuscript is to analyze the possibilities of applying automated machine learning to predict company bankruptcy. The data sample consists of financial data of 9,771 manufacturing companies for the years 2020 and 2021 collected from the Finstat database. Two methods of automated machine learning, AutoML and H2O, were tested. The results were compared with five other methods - linear discriminant analysis, logistic regression, naive Bayes classifier, CatBoost and XGBoost. The resulting model was cross-validated through the 10-fold approach. The best results were achieved by H2O automated machine learning algorithm with an AUC of 90.13%, followed by the gradient boosting methods CatBoost with AUC of 90.05% and XGBoost (AUC of 88.61%) and another automated learning algorithm AutoML with AUC of 81.17%. The findings of this paper indicate possibilities to apply automated machine learning methods in predicting bankruptcy. However, it is necessary to distinguish between individual automated machine learning algorithms since they provide a different range of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last few years, one can see the emergence of a large number of intelligent products and services, their commercial availability and the socioeconomic impact, this raises the question if the present emergence of AI is just hype or does it really have the capability of transforming the world. The paper investigates the wide range of implications of artificial intelligence (AI), and delves deeper into both positive and negative impacts on governments, communities, companies, and individuals. This paper investigates the overall impact of AI - from research and innovation to deployment. The paper addresses the influential academic achievements and innovations in the field of AI; their impact on the entrepreneurial activities and thus on the global market. The paper also contributes in investigating factors responsible for the advancement of AI. For the exploration of entrepreneurial activities towards AI, two lists of top 100 AI start-ups are considered. The inferences obtained from the research will provide an improved understanding of the innovations and the impact of AI on businesses and society in general. It will also provide a better understanding of how AI can transform the business operations and thus the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, advancements in machine learning (ML) have facilitated the utilisation of big data across various academic disciplines. Nonetheless, these techniques still require a high-level of programming and data science expertise, making them inaccessible to many researchers and hindering the potential for knowledge advancements. This paper presents a framework for identifying the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies among European firms that have undergone restructuring events. Existing studies on I4.0 adoption rely on diverse data sources at different levels of aggregation (e.g., countries, sectors, firms), spanning various time periods and technological domains. While this diversity often complicates result comparison, it also drives researchers and institutions to explore new data sources to assess technology adoption. Our identification methodology is based on the implementation of ML techniques using STATA, a well-established and user-friendly statistical software. We offer a step-by-step guide based on recently developed commands, allowing for comparison of model performance and analysis of model features. Our findings underscore the potential of ML algorithms as a robust tool for collecting new firm-level data on I4.0 adoption. Specifically, we observe that business restructuring events predicted as I4.0-related conform to adoption patterns identified in prior studies, across countries, sectors and over time. • This study presents machine learning models to predict Industry 4.0 adoption. • A methodology is presented to explore the application of data science techniques in social sciences. • The machine learning implementations are based on a set of recent commands for STATA. • Eurofound's data on 23,618 restructuring events were used to predict technology adoption from textual descriptions. • Predicted adoption patterns conform to those observed across European countries, sectors, and over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product variety and its induced manufacturing complexity remains to increase and therefore greatens challenges for design of joining elements. Historically, joining element design was a paper-based process with incomplete variety documentation and is digitalized only by replacing paper for 3D space. Currently, joining element design remains an ambiguous manual task with limited automation, resulting in long iterative, error prone development trajectories and costly reworks. Thus, processes in practice conflict with required capabilities. Artificial intelligence helps to solve such conflicts by taking over repetitive tasks, preventing human errors, optimizing designs and enabling designers to focus on their core competencies. This paper proposes a novel artificial intelligence method toolbox as a foundation to automate joining element design in manufacturing industries. The methodology aims to incorporate multiple lifecycle requirements including large product variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) often intersect under the purview of different technologies in a plethora of application areas, wherein it becomes pivotal to identify and interpret the exact roles of both the disciplines. Stakeholders involved in the fusion of AI and HCI range from engineers, scientists, philosophers and technologists to psychologists, cognitive scientists, graphic designers and researchers across a wide spectrum of realms. While it is important to develop intelligent interactive systems owing to the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of data ushering in the next era of AI, it is all the more important to develop these systems in-tandem with the aforementioned stakeholders, and in a way that users exercise appropriate control over the AI that is been developed. Human-in-the-loop systems and operator assistive technologies, especially in the context of Industry 4.0 are examples of a fabulous fusion of AI-HCI, wherein the technology that is being used works by keeping the humans in the loop, thereby paving the way for a robust, transparent, ethical, intelligent and interactive mechanism for the co-existence of AI and HCI systems. In this paper, we aim to bank upon the state-of-the-art literature that has been written previously in this regard and derive though provoking research questions. We also put forth challenges, case studies, application areas and come up with solutions, along with few recommendations that can be viably used in developing frameworks and mechanisms for the synergic co-existence of these two challenging, yet interesting fields of AI and HCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in cloud computing and software technology have resulted in the development of powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for engineering applications. However, the impact of AI in future engineering jobs remains ambiguous. This paper discusses recent AI developments, AI applications, the influence of AI on the Engineering profession, and the productivity of engineers. In addition, ethics, and professional impacts to be considered with the introduction of AI are addressed. The results of a survey conducted among people from Engineering colleges across Ireland are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is largely data-driven nowadays. Owners of the data, on the one hand, want to get added value from the data by using remote artificial intelligence tools as services, on the other hand, they concern on privacy of their data within external premises. Ideal solution for this challenge would be such anonymization of the data, which makes the data safe in remote servers and, at the same time, leaves the opportunity for the machine learning algorithms to capture useful patterns from the data. In this paper, we take the problem of supervised machine learning with deep feedforward neural nets and provide an anonymization algorithm (based on the homeomorphic data space transformation), which guarantees privacy of the data and allows neural networks to learn successfully. We made several experiments to show how much the performance of the trained neural nets will suffer from the deepening of the anonymization power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production activities are generating a large amount of data in different types (i.e., text, images), that is not well exploited. This data can be translated easily to knowledge that can help to predict all the risks that can impact the business, solve problems, promote efficiency of the manufacturing to the maximum, make the production more flexible and improving the quality of making smart decisions, however, implementing the Smart Manufacturing(SM) concept provides this opportunity supported by the new generation of the technologies. Internet Of Things (IoT) for more connectivity and getting data in real time, Big Data to store the huge volume of data and Deep Learning algorithms(DL) to learn from the historical and real time data to generate knowledge, that can be used, predict all the risks, problem solving, and better decision-making. In this paper, we will introduce SM and the main technologies to success the implementation, the benefits, and the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is moving at a fast pace with IoT and AI. Industry 4.0 is becoming a mandatory standard in many industries round the globe. It is the need of the hour to bring about a drastic change in the educational system. In this paper academia 4.0 is proposed to bring out best graduates with the required skill sets to match the industry. The proposed model is a replica of the Industry 4.0 standard, but customized for engineering education. AI and machine learning are applied to make decisions at various stages. The database of the students would be collected for a period of 7 years. The expected outcomes would be measured in terms of the students being hired in the relevant industries and their continuous growth in their area of choice. The system would be trained using AI to take right decisions at different points in the professional career of the student. The deciding factors are based on the Indian educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Industry 4.0 era, a myriad of sensors of diverse nature (temperature, pressure, etc.) is spreading throughout the entire value chain of industries, being potentially exploitable for multiple purposes, such as Predictive Maintenance (PdM): the just-in-time maintenance of industrial assets, which results in reduced operating costs, increased operator safety, etc. Nowadays, industrial processes require to be highly configurable, in order to proactively adapt their operation to diverse factors such as user needs, product updates or supply chain uncertainties. This limits current Industry 4.0-PdM solutions, typically consisting of ad-hoc developments intended for specific scenarios, i.e. they are designed to operate under certain conditions (configurations, employed sensors, etc.), being unable to manage changes in their setup. This paper presents a general Deep Learning (DL) architecture, MachNet, which deals with such heterogeneity and is able to address PdM problems of a diverse nature. The modularity of the proposed architecture enables it to deal with an arbitrary number of sensors of different types, also allowing the integration of prior information (age of assets, material type, etc.), which clearly affects performance and is often neglected. In practice, our architecture effortlessly adapts to the assets' specifications and to different PdM problems. That is, MachNet becomes an architectural template that can be instantiated for a given scenario. We tested our proposal in two different PdM-related problems: Health State (HS) and Remaining-useful-Life (RuL) estimation, achieving in both cases comparable or superior performance to other state-of-the-art approaches, with the additional advantage of the generality that MachNet offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wider availability of low-cost sensing and data acquisition technologies means that real-time sensing of tribological parameters is becoming increasingly viable. Consequently, the potential to use these technologies to monitor in-service tribological components has increased significantly. This paper presents a review of a number of state-of-the-art in sensors for measuring friction, wear and lubricant properties. It also elaborates on the use of sensor coatings as an emerging area for directly probing the tribological interface. It is concluded that sensors will find ever increasing uses in condition monitoring" applications. However, sensing and tribology is beginning to evolve towards "Tribotronics" where combining the sensing of machine elements that have conventionally been passive with computational capability, or even embedded intelligence, along with actuation can create active machine elements, optimised to operate with say minimum power loss in all situations of duty. Additionally, it is noted that by incorporating sensing and responsive capabilities, functional surfaces can also become part of a bigger connected systems particularly in association with Industry 4.0. Increased use of sensors in tribological components alongside machine learning and artificial intelligence, will also support the shift in industrial tribological analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends like autonomous driving, natural language processing, service robotics or Industry 4.0 are mainly based on the tremendous progress made in the field of machine learning (ML). The increased data availability coupled with affordable computing power and easy-to-use software tools have laid the foundation for using such algorithms in a wide range of industrial applications, e.g. for predictive maintenance, predictive quality or machine vision. However, a systematic guideline for identifying and implementing economically viable ML use cases in manufacturing industry is still missing. In particular, there is still a lack of a structured overview of concrete, industry-specific best practices that can be easily transferred to one' s own production. Hence, this paper aims to summarize various existing application scenarios of ML from a process and an industry sector perspective. The process point of view mainly covers the main manufacturing process groups of DIN 8580, handling operations according to VDI 2860 as well as selected cross-process approaches. From an industry sector perspective, application scenarios from various subsectors such as the production of electronics, electric motors, transmission components and medical devices are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce the current thrust of development in machine learning and artificial intelligence, fueled by advances in statistical learning theory over the last 20 years and commercial successes by leading big data companies. Then we discuss the characteristics of process manufacturing systems and briefly review the data analytics research and development in the last three decades. We give three attributes for process data analytics to make machine learning techniques applicable in the process industries. Next we provide a perspective on the currently active topics in machine learning that could be opportunities for process data analytics research and development. Finally we address the importance of a data analytics culture. Issues discussed range from technology development to workforce education and from government initiatives to curriculum enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging technologies like Internet of Things, Data Science, Deep Learning, Augmented Reality, Edge Computing, and Digital Twins are bringing new opportunities, challenges, and solutions for many domains including agriculture, plant sciences, animal sciences, food sciences, and social sciences. These disruptive technologies are at the center of the fourth industrial revolution, but are we ready yet to educate and prepare new generations to help society, science, and humanity adapt them? How can we change the current curriculum to reflect these technological innovations? How can we help the new generation to develop not only left-brain skills but also right-brain skills? The Netherlands is the second largest food exporter in the world after the United States and the agricultural related exports generated €45 Billion in 2018 for the economy. R&D in Dutch companies and innovation in universities in the Netherlands play an important and active role in this context. In this paper, we provide a general framework for supporting education in the context of Industry 4.0. We adopt the case study of Wageningen University at which we were actively involved in designing and customizing academic courses related to Industry 4.0. Wageningen University, which has the highest rank in the field of Agriculture & Forestry according to influential university rankings and has a rank 59 according to Times Higher Education, is traditionally a life science university but has taken also an active strategy for aligning with the developments in IT and Artificial Intelligence. Apart from the content-wise shift, skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving are addressed by applying project-based evaluations. We discuss the lessons learned and address the issues related to Industry 4.0 and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This work attempts to understand and clarify industry 4.0. • We analyze 660 journal papers and 3901 news articles through unsupervised machine learning. • We identify 31 research and application issues related to industry 4.0. • We categorize the 31 issues into infrastructure development; artificial intelligence development; system and process optimization; industrial innovation; and social change. • Our work is unique in using machine learning for the comprehensive and reliable review. Industry 4.0 has attracted considerable interest from firms, governments, and individuals as the new concept of future computer, industrial, and social systems. However, the concept has yet to be fully explored in the scientific literature. Given the topic's broad scope, this work attempts to understand and clarify Industry 4.0 by analyzing 660 journal papers and 3,901 news articles through text mining with unsupervised machine learning algorithms. Based on the results, this work identifies 31 research and application issues related to Industry 4.0. These issues are categorized and described within a five-level hierarchy: 1) infrastructure development for connection, 2) artificial intelligence development for data-driven decision making, 3) system and process optimization, 4) industrial innovation, and 5) social advance. Further, a framework for convergence in Industry 4.0 is proposed, featuring six dimensions: connection, collection, communication, computation, control, and creation. The research outcomes are consistent with and complementary to existing relevant discussion and debate on Industry 4.0, which validates the utility and efficiency of the data-driven approach of this work to support experts' insights on Industry 4.0. This work helps establish a common ground for understanding Industry 4.0 across multiple disciplinary perspectives, enabling further research and development for industrial innovation and social advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the railway domain, rolling stock maintenance affects service operation time and efficiency. Minimizing train unavailability is essential for reducing capital loss and operational costs. To this aim, prediction of failures of rolling stock equipment is crucial to proactively trigger proper maintenance activities. Indeed, predictive maintenance is a golden example of the digital transformation within Industry 4.0, which affects several engineering processes in the railway domain. Nowadays, it may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to forecast failures and schedule the optimal time for maintenance actions. Generally, rail systems deteriorate gradually over time or fail directly, leading to data that vary extremely slowly. Indeed, ML approaches for predictive maintenance should consider this type of data to accurately predict and forecast failures. This paper proposes a methodology based on Long Short-Term Memory deep learning algorithms for predictive maintenance of railway rolling stock equipment. The methodology allows us to properly learn long-term dependencies for gradually changing data, and both predicting and forecasting failures of rail equipment. In the framework of an academic-industrial partnership, the methodology is experimented on a train traction converter cooling system, demonstrating its applicability and benefits. The results show that it outperforms state-of-the-art methods, reaching a failure prediction and forecasting accuracy over 99%, with a false alarm rate of ∼ 0. 4 % and a mean absolute error in the order of 1 0 − 4 , respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Process intensification 4.0 (PI4.0) framework allows system-level transformations. • PI4.0 incorporates a data approach based on the design principles of industry 4.0. • An iterative design strategy is presented as the backbone of PI4.0. • Machine Learning/advanced computing accelerate knowledge discovery, driving PI4.0. • Different case studies are reviewed that support the philosophy behind PI4.0. This paper reviews system-level transformations converging into the next generation of Process Intensification strategies defined as PI4.0. Process Intensification 4.0 uses data-driven algorithms to understand other physical and chemical processes that improve equipment design, predictive control, and optimization. Following this, an overview of the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques, particularly Machine Learning for the acceleration of equipment design, process optimization, and streamlining, is presented. This work will highlight and discuss the emerging framework of the integration between Circular Chemistry, Industry 4.0, and Process Intensification and how the data obtained from this integration is at the core of the next generation of Process Intensification strategies. This is supported by a discussion of different cases that apply data-driven models enabled by Machine Learning as a mean to enhance an intensified system (product synthesis, equipment or methods). [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends in intelligent manufacturing are transforming shop floor environments into digital factories, thanks to a pervasive integration of information and communication technologies in production lines. Industrial processes become the source of high-volume heterogeneous data, paving the way to create manufacturing intelligence by means of machine learning and data-driven methodologies. In such settings, predictive diagnostics play a crucial role, as they promise to predict future critical conditions in the production process. Unfortunately, the diffusion of data-driven predictive maintenance methodologies is limited by (i) the absence of timely ground-truth knowledge (i.e., class labels), required in the learning phase of data-driven supervised approaches, and (ii) the limited availability of data-mining expertise among application-domain experts, required to harness the power of machine learning techniques. Innovative data-driven services are needed to support domain experts in (i) applying powerful self-learning intelligent techniques with limited technical expertise and (ii) easily understanding results and choices operated by such intelligent techniques, to increase trust by means of transparency. To this aim, this paper presents UDaMP, an integrated platform to support manufacturing intelligence by providing a transparent, self-tuning, unsupervised discovery and assisted data labelling service for predictive maintenance, specifically targeted at cyclic industrial processes. UDaMP includes (i) production-cycle-aware feature engineering, (ii) unsupervised discovery of production-cycle categories, (iii) self-tuning of the optimal number of categories, (iv) human-readable characterisation of production-cycle categories, and (v) assisted data labelling for domain experts. Scalable clustering algorithms automatically discover groups of production cycles sharing common time-independent properties. A self-tuning strategy is integrated to automatically configure the specific input parameter and select the best approach for the data under analysis. Each cluster is then locally characterised through the data distribution of the top 10 most relevant features to support domain experts in uncovering its meaning. Experimental evaluation of UDaMP has been performed on real-world data collected in two different industrial settings. • Semi-supervised labelling of production cycles for predictive maintenance. • Wide applicability to any cycle-based production process without ground truth labels. • Exploitable by domain experts thanks to transparent self-tuning techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is the new industrial revolution. By connecting every machine and activity through network sensors to the Internet, a huge amount of data is generated. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are two subsets of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which are used to evaluate the generated data and produce valuable information about the manufacturing enterprise, while introducing in parallel the Industrial AI (IAI). In this paper, the principles of the Industry 4.0 are highlighted, by giving emphasis to the features, requirements, and challenges behind Industry 4.0. In addition, a new architecture for AIA is presented. Furthermore, the most important ML and DL algorithms used in Industry 4.0 are presented and compiled in detail. Each algorithm is discussed and evaluated in terms of its features, its applications, and its efficiency. Then, we focus on one of the most important Industry 4.0 fields, namely the smart grid, where ML and DL models are presented and analyzed in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in smart grid applications. Lastly, trends and challenges in the field of data analysis in the context of the new Industrial era are highlighted and discussed such as scalability, cybersecurity, and big data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is fraught with complex and difficult problems. Artificial intelligence (AI) represents a powerful tool to assist in addressing these problems. Therefore, over the years, researchers have been conducting research on AI in the AEC industry (AI-in-the-AECI). In this paper, the first comprehensive scientometric study appraising the state-of-the-art of research on AI-in-the-AECI is presented. The science mapping method was used to systematically and quantitatively analyze 41,827 related bibliographic records retrieved from Scopus. The results indicated that genetic algorithms, neural networks, fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets, and machine learning have been the most widely used AI methods in AEC. Optimization, simulation, uncertainty, project management, and bridges have been the most commonly addressed topics/issues using AI methods/concepts. The primary value and uniqueness of this study lies in it being the first in providing an up-to-date inclusive, big picture of the literature on AI-in-the-AECI. This study adds value to the AEC literature through visualizing and understanding trends and patterns, identifying main research interests, journals, institutions, and countries, and how these are linked within now-available studies on AI-in-the-AECI. The findings bring to light the deficiencies in the current research and provide paths for future research, where they indicated that future research opportunities lie in applying robotic automation and convolutional neural networks to AEC problems. For the world of practice, the study offers a readily-available point of reference for practitioners, policy makers, and research and development (R&D) bodies. This study therefore raises the level of awareness of AI and facilitates building the intellectual wealth of the AI area in the AEC industry. • Genetic algorithms, neural networks, fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets, and machine learning are the most widely used AI methods in AEC. • Optimization, simulation, uncertainty, project management, and bridges are the most commonly addressed topics/issues using AI methods/concepts. • Future research opportunities lie in applying robotic automation to AEC problems. • There are future research opportunities also in using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for solving AEC problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is a versatile man-made polymer and has been used in a large array of products since its first mass production in the mid 40s. Among all applications of PAN the widely used application is in manufacture of precursor fiber for fabrication of carbon fibers. The process of PAN-based carbon fiber production comprises fiber spinning, thermal stabilization and carbonization stages. Carbon fiber properties are significantly dependent on the quality of PAN precursor fiber and in particular the process parameters involved in thermal stabilization. This paper is the first comprehensive review that provides a general understanding of the links between PAN fiber structure, properties, and its stabilization process along with the use of mathematical modelling as a powerful tool in prediction and optimization of the processes involved. Since the promise of the mathematical modelling is to predict the future behaviour of the system and the value of the variables for the unseen or unmeasured domain of variables; and in the era of industry 4.0 rise, this review will be valuable in further understanding of the intricate processes of carbon fiber manufacture and utilising the advanced mathematical modelling using machine learning techniques to predict and optimize a range of critical factors that control the quality of PAN and resultant carbon fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]