Man-CPS interaction: An experimental assessment of the human behavior evolution

The paper aims to analyze the novel interaction between human workers and the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) in an Industry 4.0 environment. This innovative scenario modifies the traditional (centralized) production operation: the production planning timely combines the use of accurate information from the plant with a decision-making system oriented to generate decentralized logistic choices for improving the performance of the manufacturing process. The main research question faced in this study is the “Worker Behavior” modification into the Industry 4.0 scenario focusing on the differences between the worker roles in two scenarios: an Industry 4.0 environment and a traditional one (the current industrial scenario). Experimental tests of the execution job time of planners, logistic workers and operatives have been conducted in the two configurations mentioned above of the same CPS logistic prototype. In the end, the results have been compared to identify the possible relationship between the expected training time of the worker in function of the different industrial paradigm and role. A Two-way ANOVA model was used as the statistic-analyzing tool to reduce causality due to the human involvement.