A Tree-based Hierarchy Data Storage Framework in a Pervasive Space

Context data is important information for catching the behaviors of applications in a pervasive space. To effectively store huge amount of data, tree-like layered storage architecture is proposed, where the leaf nodes collect data from sensing devices. In order to integrate data from mobile devices, the related leaf nodes that get data from the same device should upload and store the data to the host node. This paper presents a deep study of the data storage problem and proposes a global algorithm GHS and an online algorithm DHS to dynamically select the host node, which reduces the communication cost significantly. This paper also gives the theoretical and experimental analysis of these algorithms, which shows both GHS and DHS are correct and effective

RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing information tracking infrastructure for extended enterprises

In extended enterprises, real-time manufacturing information tracking plays an important role and aims to provide the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format to achieve optimal production management among the involved enterprises. However, many enterprises are caused by lack of timely, accurate and consistent manufacturing data. The laggard information transfer flow and the unmatched information transfer method bring extended enterprises much more uncertainty and unknowingness. This paper proposes a RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing information tracking infrastructure (RTMITI) to address the real-time manufacturing data capturing and manufacturing information processing methods for extended enterprises. Following the proposed infrastructure, the traditional manufacturing resources such as employees, machines and materials are equipped with RFID devices (Readers and Tags) to build the real-time data capturing environment. In addition, a series of manufacturing information processing methods are established to calculate and track the real-time manufacturing information such as real-time manufacturing cost, progress, WIP (Work-in-progress) inventory etc. in parts/assemblies/products at machines/shop floors/enterprises/ extended enterprises levels. Finally, a case study is given to demonstrate the developed framework and corresponding methodologies. © 2010 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Synchronized exchange of material and information

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, June 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-41).Commerce is all about the carefully managed exchange of material, money, and information. Traditionally, the connection between material and information has been tenuous, with humans acting as the intermediaries. This has made the supply chain inefficient and expensive. The Auto-lID Center has created a stronger, automatic link between inanimate objects and computers. This thesis completes the information exchange, or feedback loop, which makes commerce possible. Specifically, it identifies a framework for information exchange alongside material exchange using Savant-to-Savant communication. Messaging standards will need to support the Auto-ID Center's technology, and this thesis suggests how to augment existing and emerging communication standards to accomplish this feat. Finally, to address the issue of increasing information management, this thesis analyzes the aggregation database, an IT infrastructure component that might be of value to organizations. The outcome of this thesis is an understanding of the various issues necessary to develop a secure, efficient and robust system for tracking and automatically confirming material exchange.by Amit Goyal.M.Eng

An Integrated Framework to Achieve Interoperability in Person-Centric Health Management

The need for high-quality out-of-hospital healthcare is a known socioeconomic problem. Exploiting ICT's evolution, ad-hoc telemedicine solutions have been proposed in the past. Integrating such ad-hoc solutions in order to cost-effectively support the entire healthcare cycle is still a research challenge. In order to handle the heterogeneity of relevant information and to overcome the fragmentation of out-of-hospital instrumentation in person-centric healthcare systems, a shared and open source interoperability component can be adopted, which is ontology driven and based on the semantic web data model. The feasibility and the advantages of the proposed approach are demonstrated by presenting the use case of real-time monitoring of patients' health and their environmental context

Genetic stigmergy: Framework and applications

Stigmergy has long been studied and recognized as an effective system for self-organization among social insects. Through the use of chemical agents known as pheromones, insect colonies are capable of complex collective behavior often beyond the scope of an individual agent. In an effort to develop human-made systems with the same robustness, scientists have created artificial analogues of pheromone-based stigmergy, but these systems often suffer from scalability and complexity issues due to the problems associated with mimicking the physics of pheromone diffusion. In this thesis, an alternative stigmergic framework called \u27Genetic Stigmergy\u27 is introduced. Using this framework, agents can indirectly share entire behavioral algorithms instead of pheromone traces that are limited in information content. The genetic constructs used in this framework allow for new avenues of research, including real-time evolution and adaptation of agents to complex environments. As a nascent test of its potential, experiments are performed using genetic stigmergy as an indirect communication framework for a simulated swarm of robots tasked with mapping an unknown environment. The robots are able to share their behavioral genes through environmentally distributed Radio-Frequency Identification cards. It was found that robots using a schema encouraging them to adopt lesser used behavioral genes (corresponding with novelty in exploration strategies) can generally cover more of an environment than agents who randomly switch their genes, but only if the environmental complexity is not too high. While the performance improvement is not statistically significant enough to clearly establish genetic stigmergy as a superior alternative to pheromonal-based artificial stigmergy, it is enough to warrant further research to develop its potential

Process control and configuration of a reconfigurable production system using a multi-agent software system

Thesis (M. Tech. (Information Technology)) -- Central University of technology, Free State, 2011Traditional designs for component-handling platforms are rigidly linked to the product being produced. Control and monitoring methods for these platforms consist of various proprietary hardware controllers containing the control logic for the production process. Should the configuration of the component handling platform change, the controllers need to be taken offline and reprogrammed to take the changes into account. The current thinking in component-handling system design is the notion of re-configurability. Reconfigurability means that with minimum or no downtime the system can be adapted to produce another product type or overcome a device failure. The re-configurable component handling platform is built-up from groups of independent devices. These groups or cells are each responsible for some aspect of the overall production process. By moving or swopping different versions of these cells within the component-handling platform, re-configurability is achieved. Such a dynamic system requires a flexible communications platform and high-level software control architecture to accommodate the reconfigurable nature of the system. This work represents the design and testing of the core of a re-configurable production control software platform. Multiple software components work together to control and monitor a re-configurable component handling platform. The design and implementation of a production database, production ontology, communications architecture and the core multi-agent control application linking all these components together is presented