Towards Designing Next-Generation Cyber-Physical Systems Part 1

Abstract

The background study underpinning this two-part position paper rests on two assumptions: (i) next-generation cyber-physical systems (NG-CPSs) will be based on a synergistic combination of artificial intelligence approaches, and (ii) their overall design will be oriented toward system operational affordances (SOAs) and will extend to their runtime operation. This first paper elaborates on the first assumption and presents the author’s vision that the cognitive abilities of NG-CPSs will rely on holistic affordance intelligence (HAI). Considering contemporary literature, he interprets HAI as a federation of sensorimotor, computational, and embodied intelligence, plus the relevant segments of human natural intelligence (HNI). The study compared the above manifestations of AI from ontological, epistemological, and methodological aspects, and investigated their complementarity and interoperation. As a novel contribution, a framework for realizing HAI has been conceptualized. The synthesis of knowledge for HAI is transdisciplinary in that it integrates concepts, theories, methods, and explanatory frameworks originating from AI, CPSs engineering, cognitive science, systems theory, human-centered design, and philosophy of cognition into a unified affordance-oriented framework for NG-CPSs. The conversion of this framework into an integrative methodology needs to start with the consolidation and testing of the underpinning theory, and the detailed elaboration of context-sensitive procedures, methods, instruments, and criteria. The study argues that HAI is not merely a technical aggregation of AI technologies but an emergent transdisciplinary construct that connects computational, physical, cognitive, and human dimensions of system operation. The paper formulates propositions to advance post-disciplinary research in the above-mentioned directions.