Abstract
Developing technologies and innovations have brought a new breath into production approaches and philosophies throughout history. Industry 4.0 and the technologies it incorporates have been on the agenda of organizations aiming to create faster, more flexible, higher quality, and more efficient production ecosystems in recent years. Furthermore, the desire to create human-centric and economic solutions to environmental problems arising from the ecological deterioration, climate change, reduction of biological diversity and the use of non-renewable energy sources as a result of increasing industrial activities has also increased the interest in the concept of sustainability. In today's global environment, despite the increasing interest in Industry 4.0 and the technologies it contains, there are deficiencies in the conceptual and applicability frameworks in which this production paradigm includes the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability. Within the scope of this study, the contributions of autonomous robots within Industry 4.0 to the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability will be evaluated from a holistic perspective. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted using the keywords Industry 4.0, Autonomous Robots and Sustainability, which constitute the framework of the study and a tag cloud was created within the framework of these concepts using a web-based data visualization tool. As a result of the literature review, autonomous robots were evaluated comprehensively and their effects on environmental, social and economic sustainability dimensions were revealed. In the analysis of tag cloud data, it was determined that concepts such as economic, social, environmental sustainability, optimization, standardization, production, flexibility, autonomy, energy, performance, innovation, autonomy, efficiency, collaboration, productivity, sensitivity, and management came into prominence. In this context, it is thought that the study on the place, importance and effects of autonomous robots will both contribute to the relevant literature and guide the organizations in creating a sustainable production ecosystem.