Social Sensors (S^2ensors): A Kind of Hardware-Software-Integrated Mediators for Social Manufacturing Systems Under Mass Individualization

摘要

Currently, little work has been devoted to the mediators and tools for multi-role production interactions in the mass individualization environment. This paper proposes a kind of hardware-software-integrated mediators called social sensors(S^2 ensors) to facilitate the production interactions among customers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders in the social manufacturing systems(SMS).The concept, classification, operational logics, and formalization of S^2 ensors are clarified. S^2 ensors collect subjective data from physical sensors and objective data from sensory input in mobile Apps, merge them into meaningful information for decision-making, and finally feed the decisions back for reaction and execution. Then, an S^2 ensors-Cloud platform is discussed to integrate different S^2-ensors to work for SMSs in an autonomous way. A demonstrative case is studied by developing a prototype system and the results show that S^2 ensors and S^2 ensorsCloud platform can assist multi-role stakeholders interact and collaborate for the production tasks. It reveals the mediator-enabled mechanisms and methods for production interactions among stakeholders in SMS.