Design of robust socio-technical systems
Résumé
Summary The aim of this paper is to propose a theoretical background in order to model the robustness of complex socio technical systems. We begin by clarifying the difference between robustness, resilience and regulation. We propose three categories of regulation: classic; structural; and emergent and self-organised. Using examples from our previous work, we show how emergent and self organised regulation can play a critical role in achieving robust socio technical systems. The ultimate goal of our work is to help design more robust socio-complex systems. To this end, we suggest that the ergonomics of complex systems implies different types of engineering: classical engineering, resilience engineering, and finally robustness engineering. The latter, being situated in distributed and complex systems theory, allows us to explain and manage the dynamic non-deterministic nature of robust socio complex systems. Using a multi-agent systems (MAS) approach we describe the development of a simulator of an emergency control room which can virtually assess the robustness of a new organisation in relationship to predetermined scenario.