A Formalism for Affordance using Finite State Automata (FSA) in Human-Machine Cooperative Systems

Abstract

A novel formalism for human-machine cooperative systems is developed based on a shop floor controller, called the Message-based Part State Graph (MPSG) system, and the ecological concept of affordances. Modeling a human operator as an element in a manufacturing system can significantly increase the complexity of the systems because the operator can potentially access all other components. The human is limited, however, because of his or her accessibility to resources. In this paper, we investigate these limitations and map them to the system affordances. The formalism for affordance is realized by using the juxtaposition function between system affordances and human actions.