Purpose of Review: This paper provides an overview of the role of humans and robots in smart factories, their connection to Industry 4.0, and which progress they make when it comes to related technologies. Recent Findings: The current study shows that a decade was not enough to provide a reference implementation or application of Industry 4.0, like smart factories. In 2011, Industry 4.0 was mentioned for the first time in the scientific community. Industry 4.0 arrived with many new enabling technologies and buzzwords, e.g., Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and Digital Twins (DT). Summary: This paper first defines smart factories and smart manufacturing in relation to the role of humans and robots. Followed by an overview of selected technologies in smart factories. Concluded by future prospects and its’ relation to smart manufacturing.

Aquaculture net cage inspection and maintenance is a central issue in fish farming. Inspection using autonomous underwater vehicles is a promising solution. This paper proposes laser-camera triangulation for pose estimation to enable autonomous net following for an autonomous vehicle. The laser triangulation 3D data is experimentally compared to a doppler velocity log (DVL) in an active fish farm. We show that our system is comparable in performance to a DVL for distance and angular pose measurements. Laser triangulation is promising as a short distance ranging sensor for autonomous vehicles at a low cost compared to acoustic sensors.