Process automation and Industry 4.0 Priority Research Area POB5

In an era of intense economic changes and rapid development of advanced information technology, in most cases, still the most important element of any system remains the man, and the space where the creative process takes place and new ideas are generated is still the human mind. However, in many areas human capabilities are limited. For this reason, practically from the beginning of their existence, people have sought ways to expand their capabilities. The manifestation of these aspirations in the context of technology was the development of various computer techniques, the main purpose of which is to assist man in the effective implementation of virtually all stages of the process of developing a technical means. People gradually delegated further complex activities to computer systems, with the result that today human functioning in the physical world is significantly assisted by computer systems. As a result of the progressive virtualization of successive elements of the physical world, we are now experiencing an increasing “immersion” of social and economic systems in the virtual world. These processes are generally seen as the formation of a cyberreal world.