Information Model and Architecture Specification for Context Awareness Interaction Decision Support in Cyber-Physical Human–Machine Systems

This paper aims to contribute to situation, activity, and goal awareness in cyber-physical human-machine systems (HMS) by presenting a new information model and specifications for a decision-making component that can be integrated in current system architectures. The objective of this work is to improve the efficacy, acceptance, adaptability, and overall performance of HMS and human-system interaction (HSI) applications using a context-based approach. Our hypothesis is that we can enhance current interaction functionalities by integrating context and interaction information models into a decision-making component that behaves as a supervision process for controlling interaction. In HSI, we aim to define a general human model that may lead to principles and algorithms, allowing more natural and effective interaction between humans and artificial agents. The approach was implemented and tested targeting application in the domain of active and assisted living. The challenge of user acceptance is of vital importance for future solutions and is still one of the major reasons for reluctance to adopt cyber-physical systems in this domain.