The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key enabling technology for the digital transformation of the maritime sector toward Industry 4.0. Although previous studies identify IoT as a facilitator of maritime Industry 4.0 and examine its applications in specific scenarios, systematic reviews of IoT research for maritime Industry 4.0 are still lacking. Thus, this study follows the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses to review maritime IoT research for Industry 4.0 and analyze its bibliometric data on publication frequency, keywords, and research co-citation. This review identifies four mainstreams of maritime IoT research that are, 1) digital infrastructures and frameworks, 2) data-driven analytics and modeling, 3) navigation and predictive technologies, and 4) smart operations and digital transformation. It also suggests five future directions, including 1) adaptive IoT frameworks and system architectures, 2) IoT-based smart port operations and development, 3) artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven analytics for maritime IoT, 4) IoT-enabled maritime intelligence for autonomous maritime systems, and 5) sustainable maritime IoT solutions. Notably, the review finds that environmental sustainability and system resilience remain underrepresented in current research, underscoring the importance of the fifth direction. This study maps research trends to support the digital transformation of the maritime sector toward Industry 4.0.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.