Improving Human-System Digital Interaction for Industrial System Control: Some Systems Engineering Issues

In industrial system control, the human-system interaction represents one of the challenges, especially from the field operator's point of view. This interaction is usually guided by procedures. Nevertheless, the adage “error is human” is mainly confirmed in support phases such as maintenance, generally during shutdown and restarting phases. The solution proposed in this paper is to enhance the digital capabilities of the field operator in order to better balance the role distribution between the system and the human. Engineering this human-system interaction as a whole requires formal methodologies in order to define, develop and deploy digital solutions distributed over the technical system and the human operator, seen together as a unique socio-technical system. Ambient paradigm, infotronics technologies, as well as SysML modelling language are the key elements employed herein in order to improve the digital human-system interaction for industrial system control.