5. Digital tribology and the Industry 4.0 – a note

Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution is driven by innovative technologies that have profound effects on production systems. Recent research results and industrial experiments show paradigm shifts in problem solving, which affect many areas, including tribology. Quantitative information obtained through the digital approach of the tribological study in the interface regions of the contact pairs, exhibit a strong potential for the optimization of the productive processes as a whole. In this sense, the concepts of Digital Tribology, presented here, are perfectly aligned with the new technologies in this era of digitalisation and emergence of intelligent, efficient and autonomous solution required by industry 4.0.