Hypergraph-Based Analysis of Collaborative Manufacturing

This chapter aims to present a hypergraph-based analysis method. The design of these Operator 4.0 solutions requires a problem-specific description of manufacturing systems, the skills, and states of the operators, as well as of the sensors placed in the intelligent space for the simultaneous monitoring of the collaborative work. The design of a collaborative manufacturing requires the systematic analysis of the critical sets of interacting elements. The proposal is that hypergraphs can efficiently represent these sets, moreover, studying the centrality and modularity of the resultant hypergraphs can support the formation of collaboration and interaction schemes and the formation of manufacturing cells. The main finding of this chapter is that the development of these solutions can be applied in collaborative manufacturing. Collaborative manufacturing aims to achieve real-time monitoring-based control for semi-automated production systems, thereby creating more precise collaboration between human workers and machines. The key idea is that hypergraphs can efficiently represent these sets, moreover, studying the centrality as well as modularity of the resultant hypergraphs can support the formation of collaboration and interaction schemes in addition to the creation of manufacturing cells.