Steam engines fuelled innovations during the first industrial revolution. The 2nd industrial revolution is marked with the unfolding of innovations powered by internal combustion engines, electricity, electrical motors, and mass production lines. Innovations around communication, computing, software, and automation brought down the 3rd industrial revolution.
However, all the physical machines, like automobiles, that we have to date need humans in the loop to perform jobs. We are expecting that we will be able to add human-like sensing, perceiving, decision making, and action-taking capabilities in these machines. Subsequently, they will be cyber-physical systems. Our progress in having cyber-physical systems will lead to a series of Creative waves of destruction transforming the way we live and work. This era of intelligent machines is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
