Human–Industrial Cyber-Physical System Integration: Design and Evaluation Methods

In this chapter, the authors focus on the design and evaluation of industrial cyber-physical systems that will be interacting or even cooperating with a human operator. Since they are dealing with systems dedicated to Industry 4.0, these human operators are called Operators 4.0. The designer must thus identify the tasks and sub-tasks of the human operators and the Human-Industrial Cyber-Physical System (HICPS) at each level of activity, also known as the decision-making level, such as the operational, tactical and strategic levels regularly mentioned in industrial systems organizations. The definition and organization of the functions of the human operators and the HICPS are important steps in the design process, but the design of the interface, external representation of the Common Workspace, and thus support of the cooperative activity are also a crucial step to the success of the new HICPS.