Industry 4.0 is about using connected intelligence to usher in greater productivity, quality, flexibility, safety and resource utilisation across manufacturing enterprises, in which advanced manufacturing technologies such as Robotics or Additive Manufacturing play a critical role. International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing, abbreviated as I-4AM (pronounced i-forum), is a biennial conference series, which intends to provide a platform to bring together all stakeholders in manufacturing and Industry 4.0, in particular those in academia and industry, in both India and abroad for them to deliberate on the nature, needs, challenges, opportunities, problems and solutions in this transformational area of endeavour. A specific focus of I-4AM is to provide a platform for exploring avenues for creating a vision of, and enablers for sustainable, affordable, and human-centric Industry 4.0, and to showcase cutting-edge practice, research and educational innovation in this crucial and rapidly evolving area. This book, Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing—Proceedings of I-4AM 2026, focuses on all areas of Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing, including but not limited to the following topics;
· Materials Processing & Joining
· Controls, Autonomous Systems, Robotics
· Policy & Entrepreneurship
· Supply Chains
· Industry X.0
· Digital Manufacturing
· Sustainable Manufacturing
· Training and Education

Amaresh Chakrabarti is a Senior Professor and current Chair of the Department of Design and Manufacturing (DM), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He has BE in Mech Eng from IIEST, Shibpur, ME in Design of Mech Systems from IISc Bengaluru, and PhD in Eng Design from University of Cambridge, UK. He led for ten years the Design Synthesis group at the EPSRC funded CoE ‘EDC’ at University of Cambridge before joining IISc as an Associate Professor in 2001. His interests are in synthesis, creativity, sustainability, informatics, design theory and research methodology. He published 36 books, over 350 peer-reviewed articles, and has 13 patents granted/pending. He co-authored DRM, a methodology used widely as a framework for design research. He has been Assoc Editor, AI EDAM (CUP) and Design Science (CUP); Area Editor, Res in Eng Des (Springer); Regional Editor, J Remanufacturing (Springer); and Advisory Editor for nine Journals including Clean Tech & Env Policy, Mat Circular Econ (Springer), J Eng D and Int J Des Creativ & Innov (T&F). He was on the Advisory Board and Board of Management, Design Society; member, CII National Committee on Design and Smart Manufacturing Council, India; Jury, India Design Mark. He founded IDeASLab – India's first Design Observatory. He is the founding chair for two International Conf Series: Research into Design (ICoRD) and Industry 4.0 & Advanced Manufacturing (I4AM). He is an Honorary Fellow, Institution of Eng Designers, UK’s Royal peer society in eng design; Fellow, Design Society UK; Fellow, Design Research Society UK; Ambassador Awardee, TUM Germany. 25 of his papers won top paper awards in international conferences. He co-initiated India's first indigenous Smart Factory, heads IISc-TCS Innovation Lab, IISc Press, Springer International Book Series 'Design Science & Innovation', and chaired Smart Manufacturing Sub-committee, Bureau of Indian Standards. He received Careers360 2018 Faculty Award for 'Most Outstanding Researcher' in Decision Sciences, and is among the global top 2% of researchers in 'Design Practice & Management'. He received J Nehru Doctoral Fellowship, U of Cambridge UK (1987), ORS Award, Committee of Vice-Chancellors UK (1987), Lundgren Award, U of Cambridge UK (1991), UK MG MIAA Commendation Award (1994), UK Royal Society Visiting Fellowship (2010), Jubilee Professorship, Chalmers U Sweden (2025); IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Research in Eng (2022). He is the Founding president of DeScIn - India's Academy of Design Sciences. He is recipient of the 2025 ASME Ruth & Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award. He is the Editor-in-Chief, AI EDAM Journal (CUP). 

Satyam Suwas is a Professor of Materials Engineering, and currently the Dean of Mechanical Sciences at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, and worked at Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad; University of Lorraine, France and RWTH Aachen, Germany before joining Indian Institute of Science. His specialization includes materials processing, crystallographic texture and mechanical behaviour of materials. He has co-authored/co-edited 5 books, and published 400+ papers in reputed international and national journals. He is the recipient of many awards, the most notable ones being the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from Humboldt foundation, Germany, and GD Birla Gold Medal from Indian Institute of Metals. He serves on the editorial board of many reputed international journals in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. He is a fellow of Electron Microscope Society of India (EMSI), Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) as well as National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).

Manish Arora is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India. He obtained Ph.D. in applied Physics from the University of Twente, The Netherlands (2006) and B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (2002). He has got 70+ patent and research publications both in national and international level to his credit. He has employed with University of Oxford, UK between 2006-10, GE global Research 2010-12 and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2012-14. His areas of interest include biomedical devices, co-design, collaboration, open source in design and quality manufacturing of medical devices. He is the Principal Investigator in UTSAAH Lab, which aims at developing affordable and accessible medical technology solutions for promoting universal healthcare. He also teaches courses at IISc on Mechatronics and Design of Biomedical Devices and Systems.