Ambient Intelligence Scenarios Research Articles

A systematic method for building Internet of Agents applications based on the Linked Open Data approach

The Internet of Agents (IoA) is an emerging paradigm whose objective is to mitigate the deficiencies of devices of Internet of Things (IoT) in terms of reasoning and social capabilities, in order to improve proactivity, intelligence and interoperability. This paper presents the guidelines to develop IoA applications based on described semantic agents following the Linked Open Data (LOD) approach and the specifications of the IoA-OWL ontology—a specialized full ontology that formally defines the main aspects related to a novel approach such as IoA. These guidelines have been drawn up via a systematic method created from the best practices of Agile Software Development Methodologies. This method creates smart, autonomous, collaborative IoA applications based on novel Linked Open Agents (LOAs) that are driven by Linked-Agent Contracts (LACs) and Workflows for Agent Control (WACs). From a practical perspective, our method separates the modeling of components using two levels, microscopic (at agent level) and macroscopic (at agent society level) facilitated the planning, configuring and implementation of each agent in the IoA ecosystem. Moreover, the method facilitates the agent creation automation process, reducing the time required for its development and simplifying the design complexity. These achievements were demonstrated through the modeling of an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) scenario on an office composed by a set of collaborative agents in order to provide smart comfort.

A Security Scheme for Protecting Agent Societies

Mobile agent paradigm, in particular multi-agent systems represent a promising technology for emerging Ambient Intelligent scenarios and Cyber Physical Systems sharing a huge number of heterogeneous devices interacting. Unfortunately, the lack of appropriate security mechanisms, both their enforcement and usability, is hindering the application of this paradigm in real world applications. This paper presents a software based solution for the protection of multi-agent systems based on mobility property of agents. This approach focuses on the cooperative agent-based model and the core of this concept is the protected computing approach. Finally, one aspect of this approach is its user friendly style for agent based system developers who are not security experts.

Agent-based simulation with NetLogo to evaluate ambient intelligence scenarios

In this paper, an agent-based simulation is developed in order to evaluate an Ambient Intelligence scenario based on agents. Many AmI applications are implemented through agents but they are not compared with any other existing alternative in order to evaluate the relative benefits of using them. The proposed simulation environment analyses such benefits using two evaluation criteria: First, measuring agent satisfaction of different types of desires along the execution. Second, measuring time savings obtained through a correct use of context information. In this paper, an existing agent architecture, an ontology and a 12-steps protocol to provide AmI services in airports, is evaluated using the NetLogo simulation environment. In our NetLogo model, we are considering scalability issues of this application domain but using FIPA and BDI extensions to be coherent with our previous works and our previous JADE implementation of them. The NetLogo model simulates an airport with agent “passengers” passing through several zones located in a specific order in a map: passport controls, check-in counters of airline companies, boarding gates, and different types of shopping. Although the initial data in each simulation are generated randomly, and the model is just an approximation of real-world airports, the definition of this case of use of AmI through NetLogo agents opens an interesting way to evaluate the benefits of using AmI, which is a significant contribution to the final development of AmI systems.

A Network of Stationary Sensors and Mobile Robots for Distributed Ambient Intelligence

In the last few decades, sensor networks have received significant attention in the field of ambient intelligence (AmI) for surveillance and assisted living applications, as they provide a powerful tool to capture relevant information about environments and human activities. Mobile robots hold promise for enhancing the potential of sensor networks toward the development of intelligent systems that are able not only to detect events but also to actively intervene in the environment accordingly. This article presents the Distributed Ambient Intelligence Architecture that aims at integrating multisensor robotic platforms with wireless sensor networks. Based on the robot operating system, it provides a flexible and scalable software infrastructure extendible to different AmI scenarios. This article describes the proposed architecture and presents experimental tests, showing the feasibility of the system in the context of ambient assisted living.

Rule-based tools for the configuration of ambient intelligence systems: a comparative user study

This paper describes a 63-participant user study that compares two widely known systems supporting end users in creating trigger-action rules for the Internet of Things and Ambient Intelligence scenarios. The user study is the first stage of a research agenda that concerns the implementation of a novel conceptual framework for the design and continuous evolution of `sentient multimedia systems', namely socio-technical systems, where people and many kinds of hardware/software components (sensors, robots, smart devices, web services, etc.) interact with one another through the exchange of multimedia information, to give rise to intelligent, proactive behaviors. The conceptual framework is structured along three layers - physical, inference and user --- and is based on an information space of events, conditions and actions, linked together in Event-Condition-Action rules and operating according to the interconnection metaphor. The results of the user study have provided some indications for the implementation of the user layer, suggesting which could be the most suitable interaction style for rule design by a community of end users (e.g. a family) and which issues should be addressed in such a wide context.

CONSERT: Applying semantic web technologies to context modeling in ambient intelligence

Representation and reasoning about context information is a main research area in Ambient Intelligence (AmI). Context modeling in such applications is facing openness and heterogeneity. To tackle such problems, we argue that usage of semantic web technologies is a promising direction. We introduce CONSERT, an approach for context meta-modeling offering a consistent and uniform means for working with domain knowledge, as well as constraints and meta-properties thereof. We provide a formalization of the model and detail its innovative implementation using techniques from the semantic web community such as ontology modeling and SPARQL. A stepwise example of modeling a commonly encountered AmI scenario showcases the expressiveness of our approach. Finally, the architecture of the representation and reasoning engine for CONSERT is presented and evaluated in terms of performance.

An extensible platform for seamless integration and management of applications for emotion sensing and interpretation

The role of affect has become increasingly important in ambient intelligence applications. Developers require means for using multiple tools that support emotion detection and interpretation, which can be used jointly to provide meaningful system responses for the user in varied situations. We introduce Vikara, an extensible software platform that provides developers with uniform interfaces and services so their applications can access the results from existing (or newly implemented) tools for emotion sensing and interpretation. Vikara also provides components that make it possible for platform managers to visually monitor affective states as they are sensed by the various available tools. We have experimented with our platform via the development of applications for emotion detection by using (1) the well-known Facial Action Coding System and a Kinect sensor; and (2) a self-reporting interface for Android-based mobile devices. We report on the initial results of using our platform and discuss ambient intelligence scenarios in which we see potential applications, including user experience and usability evaluation, marketing, distance education and inter-personal communication.

IDK and ICARO to develop multi-agent systems in support of Ambient Intelligence

An important issue in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is the massive deployment of intelligent agents embedded in the environment which are adaptive to the users' profiles, preferences and needs. This is why, the use of agent-oriented methodologies and frameworks is almost mandatory to easily develop software for AmI scenarios. ICARO is a software framework that promotes the use of different organizational and behavioral patterns to implement multi-agent systems (MAS). Its extensive use in several projects demonstrates a substantial increase in software productivity. Also, in order to reduce the coding effort it is usual to design MAS at a higher level. In this sense, code generation from MAS specifications into ICARO framework has been performed. INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK) supports both the specification of MAS models, including any feature required to implement MAS with ICARO, and a set of facilities for code generation. This paper describes the development of AmI applications thanks to the integration of ICARO and IDK. Two IDK modules have been developed, namely a “code generation” and a “code update support” module.

Dynamic sensor event segmentation for real-time activity recognition in a smart home context

Activity recognition is fundamental to many of the services envisaged in pervasive computing and ambient intelligence scenarios. However, delivering sufficiently robust activity recognition systems that could be deployed with confidence in an arbitrary real-world setting remains an outstanding challenge. Developments in wireless, inexpensive and unobtrusive sensing devices have enabled the capture of large data volumes, upon which a variety of machine learning techniques have been applied in order to facilitate interpretation of and inference upon such data. Much of the documented research in this area has in the main focused on recognition across pre-segmented sensor data. Such approaches are insufficient for near real-time analysis as is required for many services, such as those envisaged by ambient assisted living. This paper presents a novel near real-time sensor segmentation approach that incorporates the notions of both sensor and time correlation.

Autonomous robot exploration in smart environments exploiting wireless sensors and visual features

This paper presents a complete solution for the integration of robots and wireless sensor networks in an ambient intelligence scenario. The basic idea consists in shifting from the paradigm of a very skilled robot interacting with standard objects to a simpler robot able to communicate with smart objects, i.e., objects capable of interacting among themselves and with the robots. A smart object is a standard item equipped with a wireless sensor node (or mote) that provides sensing, communication, and computational capabilities. The mote’s memory is preloaded with object information, as name, size, and visual descriptors of the object. In this paper, we will show how the orthogonal advantages of wireless sensor network technology and of mobile robots can be synergically combined in our approach. We detail the design and the implementation of the interaction of the robot with the smart objects in the environment. Our approach encompasses three main phases: (a) discovery, the robot discovers the smart objects in the area by using wireless communication; (b) mapping, the robot moving in the environment roughly maps the objects in space using wireless communication; (c) recognition, the robot recognizes and precisely locates the smart object of interest by requiring the object to transmit its visual appearance. Hence, the robot matches this appearance with its visual perception and reach the object for fine-grain interaction. Experimental validation for each of the three phases in a real environment is presented.

DEAL

Authorization is an open problem in Ambient Intelligence environments. The difficulty of implementing authorization policies lies in the open and dynamic nature of such environments. The information is distributed among various heterogeneous devices that collect, process, change, and share it. Previous work presented a fully distributed approach for reasoning with conflicts in ambient intelligence systems. This paper extends previous results to address authorization issues in distributed environments. First, the authors present the formal high-level authorization language DEAL to specify access control policies in open and dynamic distributed systems. DEAL has rich expressive power by supporting negative authorization, rule priorities, hierarchical category authorization, and nonmonotonic reasoning. The authors then define the language semantics through Defeasible Logic. Finally, they demonstrate the capabilities of DEAL in a use case Ambient Intelligence scenario regarding a hospital facility.

Multiagent Systems Protection

Agent-systems can bring important benefits especially in applications scenarios where highly distributed, autonomous, intelligence, self-organizing, and robust systems are required. Furthermore, the high levels of autonomy and self-organizations of agent systems provide excellent support for developments of systems in which dependability is essential. Both Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence scenarios belong in this category. Unfortunately, the lack of appropriate security mechanisms, both their enforcement and usability, is hindering the application of this paradigm in real-world applications. Security issues play an important role in the development of multiagent systems and are considered to be one of the main issues to solve before agent technology is ready to be widely used outside the research community. In this paper, we present a software based solution for the protection of multiagent systems concentrating on the cooperative agents model and the protected computing approach.

A Practical Case Study: Face Recognition on Low Quality Images Using Gabor Wavelet and Support Vector Machines

Face recognition is a problem that arises on many real world applications, such as those related with Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The specific nature and goals of AmI applications, however, requires minimizing the invasiveness of data collection methods, often resulting in a drastic reduction of data quality and a plague of unforeseen effects which can put standard face recognition systems out of action. In order to deal with this, a face recognition system for AmI applications must not only be carefully designed but also subject to an exhaustive configuration plan to ensure it offers the required accuracy, robustness and real-time performance. This document covers the design and tuning of a holistic face recognition system targeting an Ambient Intelligence scenario. It has to work under partially uncontrolled capturing conditions: frontal images with pose variation up to 40 degrees, changing illumination, variable image size and degraded quality. The proposed system is based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers and applies Gabor Filters intensively. A complete sensitivity analysis shows how the recognition accuracy can be boosted through careful configuration and proper parameter setting, although the most adequate setting depends on the requirements for the final system.

The “A.I.vatar”: Artificial Intelligent agents in the context of Ambient Intelligence

The European Union's Information Society Technologies Program Advisory Group (ISTAG), in its 1999 vision statement, coined the term ambient intelligence (AmI) to portray the image where people will be surrounded by intelligent and intuitive interfaces embedded in everyday objects and an environment recognizing and responding to the presence of individuals in an invisible way. For more than a decade since then, the Aml vision has been substantially developed and enriched with research initiatives devoted to the analysis of the technical, social, ethical and legal implications that this upcoming technological setting will bring about. This article contributes to the recent and prolific literature on the topic, focusing in one very important component of the AmI scenario: the massive deployment of a new generation of intelligent agents, embedded in the environment and adaptive to the users' profiles, preferences and needs. The paper provides a short description of the future environment where these agents will operate, the Ambient Intelligence scenario, and proposes one overarching term to denominate the new breed of intelligent agents within the AmI context: the A.l.vatar. The article underlines the unique features of these agents, distinguishing them from similar entities, namely the traditional intelligent software agents and the avatars. The paper concludes with a series of legal remarks pointing to future research directions on the topic.

TPM‐based protection for mobile agents

AbstractMobile agent is a promising paradigm for emerging ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligent scenarios. We believe that security is the most important issue for the widespread deployment of applications based on mobile agent technology. Indeed, community agrees that without the proper security mechanisms, use of mobile agent‐based applications will be impossible. From our perspective, the security problem in mobile agents is the gathering of two subproblems; the problem of the agent protection and the problem of the host protection. This paper presents a hardware‐based mechanism focused on solving the protection of the agent problem, which is a well known problem named the ‘malicious host’. The solution presented in this paper bases its security in the trust and the security functionalities provided by the trusted platform module (TPM). Thus, migration process of mobile agents is protected when it actually takes place. A complete description of the secure migration can be found in the secure migration protocol section of this paper. Moreover, a validation of this protocol was performed by means of the AVISPA tool suite. Additionally, a first study about the use of an alternative protocol as the direct anonymous attestation protocol was done. Finally, the result of this work is the Secure Migration Library for agents (SecMiLiA), which is completely described in following sections. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Agent-based organizational structures for ambient intelligence scenarios

In a society where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) becomes a key component to improve the quality of our daily-life, systems' complexity dramatically increases to better accommodate to an inherent complexity of users' requirements, especially when dealing with pervasive computing. This poses demanding architectural requirements such as massive decentralization and disintermediation along with self-organizing properties. This higher level of system complexity has triggered the birth of several software engineering methodologies that adopt the agent paradigm. Design patterns are a well known approach for capturing and reusing knowledge related to known solution for recurrent architectural problems. Even though the importance of patterns is growing as systems become more and more complex, their development does not keep up with the evolving requirements, as traditional agent patterns are unable to support the majority of current complex social scenarios. This work motivates the need for new agent-based organizational structures that are more flexible than traditional agent patterns such as, Broker and Matchmaker. The newly suggested structure supports the dynamic nature of “Active Environment” where groups of agents are formed for service delivery and then dissolved with no central coordinating mechanism—i.e., gaining the disintermediation property. Serving as a case study, the PEACH and PIL projects have paved the way for experimenting with the new agent-based organizational structures that are more flexible and more suitable than traditional agent patterns for coping with ambient intelligence scenarios.

Activity recognition in smart homes: from specification to representation

In Ambient Intelligence (AmI) scenarios, such as smart homes and similar assistive environments, system designers, medical personnel and - in general - non technically skilled people need to specify what to monitor with respect to occurrences of events and human activities. A Situation Description Language, called SDL, is introduced that allows to specify activity recognition templates as simple programs made up of formulas, and is provided with suitable tools to translate programs into symbolic structures maintained within an Ontology. Once encoded, formulas originate classification procedures that operate on actual sensory data. The focus of this paper is on formal specification of SDL formulas and corresponding translation within the Ontology. Examples are reported that demonstrate the benefits on context modeling introduced by the adoption of SDL.

Artificial Societies in a Community-Based Approach to Ambient Intelligence

This paper presents an agent-based approach to the modeling, design and engineering of ambient intelligence systems. The introduced approach balances the management of the complexity related to the enactment of an ambient intelligence scenario between the agents and the structured environment they populate. The dynamics of local actions and interactions of agents situated in this environment originates the overall organized system behaviour. The environment is shaped according to the notion of active coordination artifact, whose seminal definition was given in Computer Supported Cooperative Work literature by Schmidt and Simone and then evolved in other research contexts. A technique to configure and interact with such environments, i.e. the composition of device functionalities according to their high-level features, and services provided, is presented. A scenario is used as an in-depth example, and the architecture of a sample system implementing the same scenario using our reference middleware is discussed.

DALICA: Agent-Based Ambient Intelligence for Cultural-Heritage Scenarios

Villa Adriana is an enormous archaeological area where ancient artifacts and modern technology have found an unexpected equilibrium. The old artifacts are huge stone monuments; the modern technology includes PDAs and signals from the Galileo satellite combined with intelligent software agents. As part of the European CUSPIS project (Cultural Heritage Space Identification System, www. cuspis-project.info), we exploited intelligent agents for two ambient-intelligence scenarios applicable to Villa Adriana. One scenario involves cultural assets fruition-the possibility of accessing and enjoying cultural assets. This scenario concerns the dissemination of information about cultural assets; for example, users can visit a museum or archaeological site and receive on their mobile devices appropriate, personalized information about that place. The other scenario involves cultural assets monitoring, which concerns securely transporting cultural assets from the owner organization to a renter organization and back.

A Mechanism for Solving Conflicts in Ambient Intelligent Environments

Ambient Intelligence scenarios describe situations in which multitude of devices and agents live together. In this kind of scenarios is frequent to see the appearance of conflicts when modifying the state of a device as for example a lamp. Those problems are not as much of sharing of resources as of conflict of orders coming from different agents. This coexistence must deal also with the desire of privacy of the different users over their personal information such as where they are, what their preferences are or to whom this information should be available. When facing incompatible orders over the state of a device it turns necessary to make a decision. In this paper we propose a centralised mechanism based on prioritized FIFO queues to decide the order in which the control of a device is granted. The priority of the commands is calculated following a policy that considers issues such as the commander's role, command's type, context's state and commander-context and commander-resource relations. Finally we propose a set of particular policies for those resources that do not adjust to the general policy. In addition we present a model pretending to integrate privacy through limiting and protecting contextual information.