Arunkumar Azhagudurai

The digital age has expanded greatly with the rise of mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers, the Internet, mobility, the World Wide Web, social media, the cloud, and big data. However, we’re now entering a second era where digital technologies permeate to a greater extent everything in our lives and are embedded in the operations of many day-to-day businesses such as AI/ML, 3D Printing, IoT, Robotics, Drones, Blockchain (distributed ledgers), VR and AR will be reshaping the social and economic landscape around us. This research paper will be split into four parts. Part one will explore the concept of Industry 4.0 and how it’s evolved over time. Part two will discuss the eight essential emerging technologies that have the potential to disrupt the economy we know today. Part three will discuss the sustainable frameworks for smart cities by looking at industries such as health care, supply chain, manufacturing, finance, insurance, and real estate. Part four will relate the eight essential technologies and the concept of smart cities back to how they can help scale and service a living ecosystem for Industry 4.0.