The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, cloud computing, and other new technologies have all emerged in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, radically transforming a wide range of industries. The potential for new technologies to inject innovation into the field of industrial automated systems is expanding and providing new values and improving productivity across a broad spectrum of industrial sectors. Industries that have lagged behind in utilizing machines are beginning to introduce new types of industrial and mobile robots, redefining the relationship between humans and machines.

From the perspective of safe operation of machinery, there is diversifying and accelerating demand for technologies to ensure safety and anshin*. For instance, questions have arisen as to whether AI accompanied by probability calculation can correlate with safety-related systems and how safety-consciousness can be effectively promoted in agriculture, where robot-induced automation is developing due to aging of the workforce.

In order to best respond to these challenges, a new strategic direction needs to be adopted and responsibility for this starts with the leaders of organizations. They must take the initiative to initiate the following approaches, along with promoting development of new technologies: undertaking risk assessment when introducing new technologies into their systems, developing an effective approach to safety management, and providing the education and training necessary for ensuring accurate and in-depth understanding.

Around the world, there are a host of progressive efforts being made along these lines, which should be shared, discussed, and eventually, standardized for the benefit of the global society. It would be fair to say that we have entered an era wherein a holistic approach toward safety is imperative; this can only be achieved by incorporating technological development, human resources development, enhancement of integrity in organizations, and rule-making.

The International Conference on Safety of Industrial Automated Systems is a prestigious safety event first organized in 1999 by internationally renowned experts from safety-related institutions such as IRSST (Canada), INRS (France), and IFA (Germany). The 10th conference, SIAS 2020 (to be held in Aichi, Japan), while taking up that legacy, is aimed at further enhancing the value of the conference. We invite you to join in the discussion on ideal safety and anshin technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in addition to the conventional discussion frameworks.

The Secretariat is pleased to advise that the World Robot Summit 2020 (Challenge and Expo), organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) will be held just prior to SIAS 2020, close by the SIAS conference venue. We would strongly encourage you to combine your participation in SIAS 2020 with attendance at these robotics events which will explore the cutting-edge robot technologies that are playing leading roles in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and how they are being effectively utilized in a range of industries across Japan.

SIAS2020 welcomes your entry to the conference from all around the globe, for the various topics shown below.

* anshin: a sense of trust and assurance without any fear or stress