Human-computer-machine interaction for the supervision of flexible manufacturing systems: A case study

Production is moving from mass-production to ‘mass-customization’ and ‘personalization’ (lot-size-one). Accordingly, modern manufacturing systems must become more agile and responsive to changing global markets and closer to customers. Industry 4.0 technologies have the premises to face these changes in the production paradigm. However, technologies must be supported by methodological approaches focused on the process to be optimized, digitalized, and made more flexible. In this paper, we propose a seamless Human-Computer-Machine Interaction (HCMI) architecture for supporting the supervision activity of the operator in the context of flexible manufacturing systems. The suggested interaction is implemented and validated using a lab case study where we demonstrate how the proposed HCMI architecture, in line with the Industry 4.0 architectural design principles, enables ‘close-to-realtime’ supervision of the manufacturing system in its self-adaptation to production changes.