At present, COVID-19 has been gradually controlled in China, but it shows signs of spread in the world. Under the control requirements of external defense input and internal defense rebound, many enterprises face labor shortage and other problems when resuming production, but the topic of "machine replacement" in the industrial field has also reached a climax. Through this epidemic, China's traditional manufacturing industry fully realized the importance of digital, networked and intelligent production mode and the real value of big data platform and industrial Internet platform construction. However, the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry is both a tough battle and a protracted battle.

Intelligent manufacturing is a comprehensive upgrade of the manufacturing system, involving all links of the industrial chain and running through every stage of the product life cycle (design → production → logistics → sales → service). China's intelligent manufacturing regards the industrial Internet as an important infrastructure. Against the background of this epidemic, industrial Internet, together with 5G, artificial intelligence and big data center, has become the focus of domestic investment in "new infrastructure", providing common infrastructure and capacity support for industrial intelligence.

Industrial Internet creates a new type of network infrastructure that fully connects people, machines and things by building three functional systems: network, platform and security. The network system is the foundation, involving all elements of human, machine, law, material, environment and all links of the product life cycle. It deeply connects the whole industrial system, the whole industrial chain and the whole value chain. The platform system is the core. On the basis of the traditional industrial cloud platform, through the application of Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, open manufacturing capacity, knowledge and experience reuse and developer gathering are realized. The security system is the guarantee, which can identify and resist security threats and resolve various security risks.

Industrial Internet can be summarized in three sentences: data collection is the foundation, industrial PaaS (platform as service) is the core, and industrial APP is the key. That is, through large-scale and in-depth data collection, industrial big data management and service platforms can be built to form application services that meet different industries and different scenarios. Driven by "digital infrastructure" and by building a network agglomeration ecosystem of "end, network, cloud and use", the industrial Internet platform can be divided into four directions: intelligent perception, interconnection, data platform and mode innovation.

"End" - intelligent perception: data collection is the basis of the industrial Internet, the workshop is an important place for manufacturing enterprises to use and generate data, and sensors are everywhere. On the one hand, the industrial Internet has brought opportunities to sensor enterprises, on the other hand, it has also put forward higher requirements for sensor sensitivity and stability. Sensors have the requirements of lightweight, low power consumption and low cost, as well as networking, integration and intelligence. The domestic sensor industry should focus on the field of industrial Internet of Things, take industrial sensor chip, module and terminal design as the core technology, and create an ecosystem with intelligent chips, intelligent electronic devices, and intelligent application solutions of the Internet of Things.

"Network" - interconnection. Connection as a service, the integration of industrial Internet and 5G is the focus of this year. The advantages of 5G in terms of high bandwidth, low latency, and support for massive access have the potential for deep integration with the industrial Internet. The integration of information technology and operation technology has realized real interconnection in the level of communication mechanism and data structure. The internal network of the factory presents the development trend of flat, IP, wireless and flexible networking, and gradually integrates into the same fully interconnected network. The external network of the factory shows the deep collaboration and integration of the industrial production information system and the Internet, including the integration of IT (information technology) system and the Internet, the collaboration of OT (operating technology) system and the Internet, the integration of enterprise private networks and the Internet, and the integration of product services and the Internet.

"Cloud" - data middle ground. The value and role of data in the industrial Internet will become more and more prominent. Data analysis will penetrate into all aspects of the industry, and more intelligent applications such as prediction, decision-making and control will become the development direction. The data center provides a series of technology collections for collecting, calculating, storing and processing massive industrial big data, including data models, algorithm services, data products, data management, etc. Industrial mechanism modeling conducts independent mining and efficient representation of industrial technology principles, industry knowledge, basic processes, model tools, etc., and supports state awareness, real-time analysis, scientific decision-making, and accurate implementation oriented to the industrial field. The industrial PaaS platform also provides various middleware, layered dynamic expansion mechanism, development, operation and maintenance and other support capabilities necessary for cloud services.

"Use" - mode innovation. Industrial Internet is mainly data driven industrial intelligence. Through the industrial APP system of specific application scenarios, it focuses on supporting networked collaboration, intelligent production, personalized customization and service-oriented extension. The integration of 5G and industrial Internet can comprehensively promote the profound transformation of production processes such as R&D, design, manufacturing, management and service of 5G and vertical industries. Typical eight categories of 5G+industrial Internet integration applications include 5G+ultra HD video, 5G+AR, 5G+VR, 5G+UAV, 5G+cloud robot, 5G+remote control, 5G+machine vision and 5G+cloud AGV (automatic guided transport vehicle).

The industrial Internet industry is entering a period of rapid development. In the future, the industrial Internet platform will reconstruct the modern industrial technology system, and will speed up application innovation and promotion based on vertical industry needs.

(The author is the deputy director of the Department of Internet of Things and Big Data, School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology)