Connectivity

• Sensors, PLCs and gateways, and the OPC UA and MQTT protocols that move their data
• Brownfield retrofits — extracting data from machines never designed to share it
• OT/IT convergence and the security exposure it creates on the production network

Analytics

• Time-series condition monitoring and predictive maintenance on vibration and current signals
• The cost asymmetry between a false alarm and a missed failure, and how it sets thresholds
• Baseline drift as equipment ages, and why a model tuned at commissioning decays

Digital Twins

• Physics-based and data-driven twins, and what each can and cannot represent
• Synchronising a twin with live data and the latency budget that keeps it useful
• Simulation for line balancing and what-if analysis instead of trial on real production

Automation

• Collaborative-robot operating modes and the safety requirements of ISO/TS 15066
• Speed-and-separation monitoring and power-and-force limiting in a real cell
• Allocating tasks between human and machine on capability and variability, not labour cost alone

Capstone

• Scoping a predictive-maintenance or automated-inspection case with a measurable payback
• Tracing the path from a raw sensor signal to an operator-facing decision
• Presenting the business case honestly, including where the data or ROI does not yet support it