Industry 5.0 Principles and Enabling Technologies, Towards an Enhanced Conservation Practice: Systematic Literature Review Preprint

The rise of Industry 4.0 has led to a rapid increase in digitalization and industrial operations. However, it has recently been deemed insufficient in fulfilling European objectives for 2030. In response to this, and to counteract the unintended negative consequences triggered by Industry 4.0, the innovative concept of Industry 5.0 has been introduced. Industry 5.0 primarily rests on three core principles: (i) human-centrism, (ii) resilience, and (iii) sustainability. The enabling technologies for this transformative approach include human-centric solutions and interactions between humans and machines; technologies and smart materials inspired by nature; real-time Digital Twins (DT) and simulations; secure transmission, storage, and analysis of data; Artificial Intelligence (AI); and energy-efficient and reliable autonomy. This paper aims to shed light on how the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Management, Operation, and Conservation (AECMO&C) industry can adapt and be better prepared to embrace novel Industry 5.0 principles and enabling technologies, ultimately resulting in enhanced conservation practices for the Built Cultural Heritage Environment (BCHE). To achieve this, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted following the PRISMA methodology. Eligible for inclusion were peer reviewed records written in English, from 2020 up to 2024, published as articles, conference papers, book chapters, or reviews in journals, conference proceedings, books, or book series within the subject areas of Computer Science, Engineering, Business Management and Accounting, Decision Sciences, Social Sciences, Economics Econometrics and Finance, Energy, Environmental Science, Materials Science, Arts and Humanities, and Multidisciplinary. Scopus was selected as the information source used to identify relevant studies and the search was conducted on 16 Feb. 2024. Following the selection process established by the PRISMA flow diagram for systematic reviews, 78 records were included in this SLR. Results are presented through a bibliometric analysis and a narrative synthesis. The main outcomes of this work highlight the different AECMO&C conservation professionals views on the potential of Industry 5.0 principles and enabling technologies for enhancing conservation practices, with AI and DT being the two most studied technologies in the field. Sustainability is the most discussed aspect throughout the analyzed literature, whereas resilience and human centrism require further research and implementation efforts to be fully integrated into the industry’s conservation practices.