Industry 5.0: The Arising of a Concept

The march of industrial progress is marked by the appearance of disruptive technologies that originate revolutions with a significant social and economic impact. The last unfolding industrial revolution is known as Industry 4.0 ushering the emergence of smart factories using cyber-physical systems and IoT. In recent years, the term Industry 5.0 has appeared in several sources associated with different concepts. This lack of a clear definition, prompted us to do a bibliographic analysis on the arising of the expression “Industry 5.0” in the scientific literature. Most of the works associate it with a fifth industrial revolution, which will do what I4.0 did not achieve: promote a more just and sustainable society, in which there is a symbiotic/collaborative relationship between human and machine/robot. This set of values subscribe the European Union strategy and vision for the future of the industry but still lack a unifying idea that binds these values and technological solutions to characterize I5.0 as a truly industrial revolution.