Open Access

Achim Guldner, Maximilian Hoffmann, Christian Lohr, Rüdiger Machhamer, Lukas Malburg, Marlies Morgen, Stephanie C. Rodermund, Florian Schäfer, Lars Schaupeter, Jens Schneider, Felix Theusch, Ralph Bergmann, Guido Dartmann, Norbert Kuhn, Stefan Naumann, Ingo J. Timm, Matthias Vette-Steinkamp, Benjamin Weyers

• Digital transformation is both an opportunity and a challenge. To take advantage of this opportunity for humans and the environment, the transformation process must be understood as a design process that affects almost all areas of life. In this paper, we investigate AI-Based Self-Adaptive Cyber-Physical Process Systems (AI-CPPS) as an extension of the traditional CPS view. As contribution, we present a framework that addresses challenges that arise from recent literature. The aim of the AI-CPPS framework is to enable an adaptive integration of IoT environments with higher-level process-oriented systems. In addition, the framework integrates humans as actors into the system, which is often neglected by recent related approaches. The framework consists of three layers, i.e., processes, semantic modeling, and systems and actors, and we describe for each layer challenges and solution outlines for application. We also address the requirement to enable the integration of new networked devices under the premise of a targeted process that is optimally designed for humans, while profitably integrating AI and IoT. It is expected that AI-CPPS can contribute significantly to increasing sustainability and quality of life and offer solutions to pressing problems such as environmental protection, mobility, or demographic change. Thus, it is all the more important that the systems themselves do not become a driver of resource consumption.