A Meta-Model of Cyber-Physical-Social System: The CPSS Paradigm to Support Human-Machine Collaboration in Industry 4.0

Abstract

The 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) heavily relying on the concept of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has transformed the manufacturing industry into an intelligent environment. Advances in manufacturing and automation industries created hyper-connected industrial ecosystems that are not limited to smart production but also facilitate organizational integration. Hence, fostering the creation of collaborative, networked and intelligent industries. One of the emerging advances in the digital transformation of industries is the creation of environments where humans work in close collaboration with sensor enabled smart machines and robots. Particularly the close involvement of humans in such smart environments challenges system designed methodologies mainly because human aspects are not considered in CPS design frameworks. In this paper, we present an approach to support this aspect of Industry 4.0 taking a Cyber-Physical-Social System (CPSS) paradigm to incorporate human aspects with the existing notion of CPS. We propose a meta-model of CPSS that can serve as a framework to design systems involving human and CPS collaboration.