Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways

Position paper on realizing smart products: challenges for Semantic Web technologies

In the rapidly developing space of novel technologies that combine sensing and semantic technologies, research on smart products has the potential of establishing a research field in itself. In this paper, we synthesize existing work in this area in order to define and characterize smart products. We then reflect on a set of challenges that semantic technologies are likely to face in this domain. Finally, in order to initiate discussion in the workshop, we sketch an initial comparison of smart products and semantic sensor networks from the perspective of knowledge technologies

Service-oriented coordination platform for technology-enhanced learning

It is currently difficult to coordinate learning processes, not only because multiple stakeholders are involved (such as students, teachers, administrative staff, technical staff), but also because these processes are driven by sophisticated rules (such as rules on how to provide learning material, rules on how to assess students’ progress, rules on how to share educational responsibilities). This is one of the reasons for the slow progress in technology-enhanced learning. Consequently, there is a clear demand for technological facilitation of the coordination of learning processes. In this work, we suggest some solution directions that are based on SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture). In particular, we propose a coordination service pattern consistent with SOA and based on requirements that follow from an analysis of both learning processes and potentially useful support technologies. We present the service pattern considering both functional and non-functional issues, and we address policy enforcement as well. Finally, we complement our proposed architecture-level solution directions with an example. The example illustrates our ideas and is also used to identify: (i) a short list of educational IT services; (ii) related non-functional concerns; they will be considered in future work

Semi-autonomous, context-aware, agent using behaviour modelling and reputation systems to authorize data operation in the Internet of Things

In this paper we address the issue of gathering the "informed consent" of an end user in the Internet of Things. We start by evaluating the legal importance and some of the problems linked with this notion of informed consent in the specific context of the Internet of Things. From this assessment we propose an approach based on a semi-autonomous, rule based agent that centralize all authorization decisions on the personal data of a user and that is able to take decision on his behalf. We complete this initial agent by integrating context-awareness, behavior modeling and community based reputation system in the algorithm of the agent. The resulting system is a "smart" application, the "privacy butler" that can handle data operations on behalf of the end-user while keeping the user in control. We finally discuss some of the potential problems and improvements of the system.Comment: This work is currently supported by the BUTLER Project co-financed under the 7th framework program of the European Commission. published in Internet of Things (WF-IoT), 2014 IEEE World Forum, 6-8 March 2014, Seoul, P411-416, DOI: 10.1109/WF-IoT.2014.6803201, INSPEC: 1425565