Abstract
The recent revolution connected to the manufacturing and assembly process digitalization, known as Industry 4.0 (I40), is radically changing the way these processes are conducted. Assembly systems are expected to benefit from positive effects, such as significant innovation and improvement in system flexibility, increase in process speed and efficiency, as well as the possibility of extremely customized products. Accordingly, interest in the exploitation of technological improvements introduced by I40 in the design and management of AS is increasing as well. The objective of this paper is to inspect the evolution of research on I40 applied to AS by means of the analysis of the literature on this topic. To achieve this objective, a traditional content-based literature review is combined with quantitative information extracted from bibliographic networks to detect emerging topics, and by revealing the dynamic evolution of the scientific production. This dynamic analysis allowed highlighting research directions and critical areas for the development of the 'assembly I40'. Moreover, the analysis offers insights on the technology improvements that have not been explored yet in order to allow a real transition towards the I40 transformation of AS.