On the Design Complexity of Cyberphysical Production Systems

Establishing mass-customization practices, in a sustainable way, at a time of increased market uncertainty, is a pressing challenge for modern producing companies and one that traditional automation solutions cannot cope with. Industry 4.0 seeks to mitigate current practice’s limitations. It promotes a vision of a fully interconnected ecosystem of systems, machines, products, and many different stakeholders. In this environment, dynamically interconnected autonomous systems support humans in multifaceted decision-making. Industrial Internet of Things and cyberphysical systems (CPSs) are just two of the emerging concepts that embody the design and behavioral principles of these highly complex technical systems. The research within multiagent systems in manufacturing, by embodying most of the defining principles of industrial CPSs (ICPSs), is often regarded as a precursor for many of today’s emerging ICPS architectures. However, the domain has been fuzzy in specifying clear-cut design objectives and rules. Designs have been proposed with different positioning, creating confusion in concepts and supporting technologies. This paper contributes by providing clear definitions and interpretations of the main functional traits spread across the literature. A characterization of the defining functional requirements of ICPSs follows, in the form of a scale, rating systems according to the degree of implementation of the different functions.