Interaction Mechanism of Humans in a Cyber-Physical Environment

Abstract

The research initiative “Industrie 4.0” (I4.0) of the high-tech strategy announced by the German government targets the deployment of a cyber-physical system (CPS) in production and logistics. Such CPS-based environments are characterized by an increasing number of heterogeneous intelligent autonomous and communicating artifacts tightly integrated with humans. Thus, the human’s role will become a composite factor (“man-in-the-mesh”) for this future CPS environment, playing more than just a simple role inside the control loop. This paper investigates the need of a robust communication between CPS and humans, which includes a clear semantic of the exchanged information. For this purpose, a mediation service and corresponding language are presented. Finally, further research activities are presented.