Designing adaptive human-cyber-physical systems to improve industrial tasks: a methodological approach

The design of modern production systems is requiring more and more integration of human-in-the-loop principles introduction of new working paradigms, where humans and machines cooperate and interact with each other. Such practices are reinforcing the need for human-centric smart manufacturing (HSM). Today, human-cyber-physical systems (HCPSs) allow to intrinsically meet the industrial complexity and bring insights in the development and implementation of HSM. In this context, the growing interest of academics and practitioners on the three key concepts of “sustainability, human-centric, and resiliency” related to the Industry 5.0 (I5.0) framework is justified. The aim of this study is to present a methodological approach for the design of adaptive human-cyber-physical systems to meet the I5.0 objectives. Starting from the analysis of the as-is user and process-related conditions, this innovative closed-loop framework guarantees a step-by-step tuning logic according to specified objectives. A use case concerning a quality control procedure for the Oil&Gas sector is proposed, where a preliminary HCPS prototype has been developed and tested. The solution provides a contextual support throughout all the value chain to the diverse activities carried out by design engineers up to end-users by offering a valuable operator’s user experience (UX). The main results suggested that the conceived strategy overcomes traditional limitations of the technical drawings by integrating model-based engineering with human-centred design (HCD) principles. The systematic introduction of HCPS allows to redesign the human–machine interaction according to new paradigms of collaboration between the humans and the smart factory.