Industrial foundation model: architecture, key technologies, and typical applications

With the development of the new generation of artificial intelligence, foundation models (such as GPT-4o), leveraging extensive training data, parameters, and computational power, have emerged unique generative capabilities, generalization ability, and natural interaction skills, showcasing tremendous potential to transform industrial production processes. However, despite significant advancements in various fields, such as natural language processing, the exploration of foundation models in industrial applications remains in its infancy. There is a lack of systematic research on industrial foundation models. Industrial applications have unique characteristics, such as heterogeneous cross-modal data, complex and diverse specialized scenarios, long-process integrative decision-making, and high demands for reliability and real-time performance. Generalized foundation models are not directly applicable to solving complex industrial problems. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new research on the basic theories and key technologies of industrial foundation models. This paper systematically discusses the challenging issues, concepts, architecture, construction methods, key technologies, and typical applications of industrial foundation models. It analyzes five key challenges and proposes a new definition and system architecture for industrial foundation models. Additionally, it outlines a four-stage construction method and elaborates on the key technologies of the industrial foundation model. Then, based on the six core application capabilities of the proposed industrial foundation model, the paper explores typical application scenarios of the industrial foundation model for the entire life cycle and provides examples of the application of the industrial foundation model prototype system in generative artificial intelligence. Finally, the paper discusses future research directions and openness issues of the industrial foundation model, aiming to provide comprehensive guidance on the basic theories, key technologies, and industrial applications for the development of this new research direction.