The need for interaction with machines

Humans need to interact with machines and hence, with the automation that is behind the machines, to give commands, and to provide setpoints. Similarly, automation needs to tell humans the current state of the processing; that is, the progress made of the task under process. Faults or exceptions need to be alerted. Diagnostic information needs to be conveyed. These are the interactions between humans and machines during the operational state of the machine. But beyond this routine communication, there is another level of interaction. Can you remember the days in the early 2000s when you were trying to download a file via the dial-up connection on your computer? If the connection was bad, there was a high chance that the download would be interrupted and you would have to restart the download. A similar case persists in machines and automation. There are various scenarios where the machine controller might need a software or a patch update. The...