Cost-benefit analyses of man-machine cooperative systems by assesment of Machine Intelligence Quotient (MIQ) gain

A cost-benefit analysis is a method used by economists for project appraisal by weighing all the cost of the project against benefits. The method is also frequently used for determining value addition of a development to see if added values outweigh the costs involved. In this paper, this technique is adapted to determine the cost-benefit of a man-machine cooperative system to determine the feasibility of add-on units to an existing system. Unlike a project where all costs and benefits are measured in monetary terms, the benefit of a man-machine cooperative system is suggested to be measured by Machine Intelligence Quotient (MIQ) of the system. To determine the value added by the add-on system, the MIQ of the system is measured again and the MIQ gain of the system is used for determination of cost-benefit analyses. The process is demonstrated by measuring MIQ of a robotic system with and without vision system to determine the cost-benefit analyses of adding machine vision to an industrial robot.