A Survey on Human-in-the-Loop Applications Towards an Internet of All

TLDR

The growing Internet of Things is enabling cyber‑physical systems, yet most human‑centric CPSs still treat humans as unpredictable external factors, and the field lacks a unified understanding of requirements, principles, and theory. This survey aims to extend knowledge of Human‑in‑the‑Loop CPSs by conducting an in‑depth review of the state‑of‑the‑art and critically evaluating existing taxonomies. The authors analyze Human‑in‑the‑Loop CPSs by examining how control systems can incorporate human intents, psychological states, emotions, and actions inferred from sensory data, and by proposing a new taxonomy of human roles and a requirement analysis. The survey presents a novel taxonomy of human roles in CPSs and a requirement analysis that clarifies the essential components for effective Human‑in‑the‑Loop integration.

Abstract

Our tools and appliances are becoming increasingly more intelligent and interconnected, giving birth to an “Internet of Things” that can be used to support new types of cyber-physical systems (CPSs). While many CPSs are human-centric applications where humans are an essential part of the system, unfortunately, most of these systems still consider the human as an external and unpredictable element to the control loop. In order for these systems to better serve human needs, future CPSs will need to bolster a closer tie with the human element, through Human-in-the-Loop controls that take into consideration human intents, psychological states, emotions and actions inferred through sensory data. This area is a natural confluence of multidisciplinary focus but currently lacks a general understanding of the underlying requirements, principles and theory. As far as we know, this survey is the first effort towards extending the field's knowledge through an in-depth research of the state-of-the-art and a critical overview of the current taxonomic efforts in the area of Human-in-the-Loop CPSs. On top of this research, a novel taxonomic exercise focused on the general roles of the human component together with a requirement analysis, are presented.