Industrial cyber-physical systems operate simultaneously in the physical and digital worlds of business and are now a cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution. Increasingly, these systems are becoming the way forward for academics and industrialists alike. The very essence of these systems, however, is often misunderstood or misinterpreted. This book thus sheds light on the problem areas surrounding cyber-physical systems and provides the reader with the key principles for understanding and illustrating them.

Presented using a pedagogical approach, with numerous examples of applications, this book is the culmination of more than ten years of study by the Intelligent Manufacturing and Services Systems (IMS2) French research group, part of the MACS (Modeling, Analysis and Control of Dynamic Systems) research group at the CNRS. It is intended both for engineers who are interested in emerging industrial developments and for master’s level students wishing to learn about the industrial systems of the future.