A Role-Based Approach for Orchestrating Emergent Configurations in the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned as a global network of connected things enabling ubiquitous machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. With estimations of billions of sensors and devices to be connected in the coming years, the IoT has been advocated as having a great potential to impact the way we live, but also how we work. However, the connectivity aspect in itself only accounts for the underlying M2M infrastructure. In order to properly support engineering IoT systems and applications, it is key to orchestrate heterogeneous 'things' in a seamless, adaptive and dynamic manner, such that the system can exhibit a goal-directed behaviour and take appropriate actions. Yet, this form of interaction between things needs to take a user-centric approach and by no means elude the users' requirements. To this end, contextualisation is an important feature of the system, allowing it to infer user activities and prompt the user with relevant information and interactions even in the absence of intentional commands. In this work we propose a role-based model for emergent configurations of connected systems as a means to model, manage, and reason about IoT systems including the user's interaction with them. We put a special focus on integrating the user perspective in order to guide the emergent configurations such that systems goals are aligned with the users' intentions. We discuss related scientific and technical challenges and provide several uses cases outlining the concept of emergent configurations.Comment: In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on the Internet of Agents @AAMAS201

Improvement Schemes for Indoor Mobile Location Estimation: A Survey

Location estimation is significant in mobile and ubiquitous computing systems. The complexity and smaller scale of the indoor environment impose a great impact on location estimation. The key of location estimation lies in the representation and fusion of uncertain information from multiple sources. The improvement of location estimation is a complicated and comprehensive issue. A lot of research has been done to address this issue. However, existing research typically focuses on certain aspects of the problem and specific methods. This paper reviews mainstream schemes on improving indoor location estimation from multiple levels and perspectives by combining existing works and our own working experiences. Initially, we analyze the error sources of common indoor localization techniques and provide a multilayered conceptual framework of improvement schemes for location estimation. This is followed by a discussion of probabilistic methods for location estimation, including Bayes filters, Kalman filters, extended Kalman filters, sigma-point Kalman filters, particle filters, and hidden Markov models. Then, we investigate the hybrid localization methods, including multimodal fingerprinting, triangulation fusing multiple measurements, combination of wireless positioning with pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR), and cooperative localization. Next, we focus on the location determination approaches that fuse spatial contexts, namely, map matching, landmark fusion, and spatial model-aided methods. Finally, we present the directions for future research

Cross-Platform Text Mining and Natural Language Processing Interoperability - Proceedings of the LREC2016 conference

No abstract available

Cross-Platform Text Mining and Natural Language Processing Interoperability - Proceedings of the LREC2016 conference

No abstract available

Cleantech Investments in China – Multiple perspectives on the trends, drivers and barriers

Cleantech—technologies with a reduced environmental impact—has emerged as an important set of solutions for addressing pollution and its impacts in China. The goal of this study is to map out wherein Chinese actors with first-hand knowledge of cleantech investments think the largest domestic investment opportunities are found, understand the underlying reasons, and then evaluate how consistently the investment preferences reflect the country’s environmental problems, public discourse and policy. This is accomplished through a review of the Chinese cleantech discourse and semi-structured interviews with the mentioned actors. The study found pollution—in particular air pollution—to be the dominant area of concern among both the interviewees, throughout the public discourse and in the policy arena. This was largely reflected in the most preferred cleantech sub-sectors: energy efficiency, solar and wind energy, electric mobility, wastewater treatment, and energy storage. IoT (The Internet of Things), big data, IT and AI were found to be particularly important for delivering these solutions. However, some areas of major environmental concern, targeted by policy, indicated a disconnect, as they still evoked little interest for investments. These areas include solutions targeting water scarcity, solid waste, chemical exposure and the industrial sector broadly. Bio- and geothermal energy sources were also largely overlooked. The narrow focus on a few areas of cleantech is largely caused by the important directing role of policy in China, but also—as the mentioned disconnect indicates—by the investment culture, and the acuteness of the air pollution problem. Nonetheless, the study concludes that many opportunities remain largely overlooked, including several niche technologies, heat pumps, industrial symbiosis, and consulting-related services—besides the already mentioned areas of the disconnect, and bio- and geothermal energy sources. Further research is needed to explore not only the potential of these mentioned areas—in particular IoT, IT, big data and IoT—but of the complex matrix surrounding cleantech investments in China as a whole

Open-Source, Open-Architecture SoftwarePlatform for Plug-InElectric Vehicle SmartCharging in California

This interdisciplinary eXtensible Building Operating System–Vehicles project focuses on controlling plug-in electric vehicle charging at residential and small commercial settings using a novel and flexible open-source, open-architecture charge communication and control platform. The platform provides smart charging functionalities and benefits to the utility, homes, and businesses.This project investigates four important areas of vehicle-grid integration research, integrating technical as well as social and behavioral dimensions: smart charging user needs assessment, advanced load control platform development and testing, smart charging impacts, benefits to the power grid, and smart charging ratepayer benefits

Towards Mobility Data Science (Vision Paper)

Mobility data captures the locations of moving objects such as humans, animals, and cars. With the availability of GPS-equipped mobile devices and other inexpensive location-tracking technologies, mobility data is collected ubiquitously. In recent years, the use of mobility data has demonstrated significant impact in various domains including traffic management, urban planning, and health sciences. In this paper, we present the emerging domain of mobility data science. Towards a unified approach to mobility data science, we envision a pipeline having the following components: mobility data collection, cleaning, analysis, management, and privacy. For each of these components, we explain how mobility data science differs from general data science, we survey the current state of the art and describe open challenges for the research community in the coming years.Comment: Updated arXiv metadata to include two authors that were missing from the metadata. PDF has not been change

Probabilistic inference on uncertain semantic link network and its application in event identification

The Probabilistic Semantic Link Network (P-SLN) is a model for enhancing the ability of Semantic Link Network in representing uncertainty. Probabilistic inference over uncertain semantic links can process the likelihood and consistency of uncertain semantic links. This work develops the P-SLN model by incorporating probabilistic inference rules and consistency constraints. Two probabilistic inference mechanisms are incorporated into the model. The application of probabilistic inference on SLN of events for joint event identification verifies the effectiveness of the proposed model

Bayesian & AI driven Embedded Perception and Decision-making. Application to Autonomous Navigation in Complex, Dynamic, Uncertain and Human-populated Environments.Synoptic of Research Activity, Period 2004-20 and beyond

Robust perception & Decision-making for safe navigation in open and dynamic environments populated by human beings is an open and challenging scientific problem. Traditional approaches do not provide adequate solutions for these problems, mainly because these environments are partially unknown, open and subject to strong constraints to be satisfied (in particular high dynamicity and uncertainty). This means that the proposed solutions have to take simultaneously into account characteristics such as real-time processing, temporary occultation or false detections, dynamic changes in the scene, prediction of the future dynamic behaviors of the surrounding moving entities, continuous assessment of the collision risk, or decision-making for safe navigation. This research report presents how we have addressed this problem over the two last decades, as well as an outline of our Bayesian & IA approach for solving the Embedded Perception and Decision-making problems