Dante I. Tapia

Using Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks in a Telemonitoring System for Healthcare

Ambient intelligence has acquired great importance in recent years and requires the development of new innovative solutions. This paper presents a distributed telemonitoring system, aimed at improving healthcare and assistance to dependent people at their homes. The system implements a service-oriented architecture based platform, which allows heterogeneous wireless sensor networks to communicate in a distributed way independent of time and location restrictions. This approach provides the system with a higher ability to recover from errors and a better flexibility to change their behavior at execution time. Preliminary results are presented in this paper.

Agents and ambient intelligence: case studies

The significance that ambient intelligence (AmI) has acquired in recent years requires the development of innovative solutions. In this sense, the development of AmI-based systems requires the creation of increasingly complex and flexible applications. One of the most important aspects in AmI is the use of context-aware technologies in order to perceive stimuli from both the users and the environment. Thus, the information obtained must be managed by intelligent and self-adaptable technologies in order to provide an adequate interaction between the users and their environment. Agents and multi-agent systems are one of these technologies. The agents have characteristics such as autonomy, reasoning, reactivity, social abilities and pro-activity which make them appropriate for developing dynamic and distributed systems based on AmI, as they possess the capability of adapting themselves to the users and environmental characteristics. This paper presents several case studies where agents and context-aware technologies have been implemented to build AmI-based systems. These case studies expand the possibilities of AmI and get closer to its vision.

Integrating hardware agents into an enhanced multi-agent architecture for Ambient Intelligence systems

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems require the integration of complex and innovative solutions. In this sense, agents and multi-agent systems have characteristics such as autonomy, reasoning, reactivity, social abilities and pro-activity which make them appropriate for developing distributed systems based on Ambient Intelligence. In addition, the use of context-aware technologies is an essential aspect in these developments in order to perceive stimuli from the context and react to it autonomously. This paper presents the integration of the Hardware-Embedded Reactive Agents (HERA) Platform into the Flexible and User Services Oriented Multi-agent Architecture (FUSION@), a multi-agent architecture for developing AmI systems that integrates intelligent agents with a service-oriented architecture approach. Because of this integration, FUSION@ has the ability to manage both software and hardware agents by using self-adaptable heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. Preliminary results presented in this paper demonstrate the feasibility of FUSION@ as a future alternative for developing Ambient Intelligence systems where users and systems can use both software and hardware agents in a transparent way, achieving a higher level of ubiquitous computing and communication.

FUSION@, A SOA-Based Multi-agent Architecture

This paper presents a multi-agent architecture which facilitates the integration of distributed services and applications to optimize the construction of multi-agent systems. The architecture proposes a new and easier method to develop distributed multi-agent systems, where applications and services can communicate in a distributed way, even from mobile devices, independent of a specific programming language or operating system. The core of the architecture is a group of deliberative agents acting as controllers and administrators for all applications and services. The functionalities of the agents are not inside their structure, but modelled as services. This approach provides a higher ability to recover from errors and a better flexibility to change the agents’ behaviour at execution time.

An Ambient Intelligence Based Multi-Agent System for Alzheimer Health Care

This article describes ALZ-MAS; an Ambient Intelligence based multi-agent system aimed at enhancing the assistance and health care for Alzheimer patients. The system makes use of several context-aware technologies that allow it to automatically obtain information from users and the environment in an evenly distributed way, focusing on the characteristics of ubiquity, awareness, intelligence, mobility, etc., all of which are concepts defined by Ambient Intelligence.

Introducing a Distributed Architecture for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents SYLPH, a novel distributed architecture which integrates a service-oriented approach into Wireless Sensor Networks. One of the characteristics of SYLPH is that it can be executed over multiple wireless devices independently of their microcontroller or the programming language they use. SYLPH works in a distributed way so that most of the application code does not have to reside in a central node. Furthermore, SYLPH allows the interconnection of several networks from different wireless technologies, such as ZigBee or Bluetooth. This paper focuses on describing the main components of SYLPH and the issues that lead to design and develop this new approach. Results and conclusions are presented after evaluating a preliminary version of this architecture.

Mitigation of the ground reflection effect in real-time locating systems based on wireless sensor networks by using artificial neural networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become much more relevant in recent years, mainly because they can be used in a wide diversity of applications. Real-time locating systems (RTLSs) are one of the most promising applications based on WSNs and represent a currently growing market. Specifically, WSNs are an ideal alternative to develop RTLSs aimed at indoor environments where existing global navigation satellite systems, such as the global positioning system, do not work correctly due to the blockage of the satellite signals. However, accuracy in indoor RTLSs is still a problem requiring novel solutions. One of the main challenges is to deal with the problems that arise from the effects of the propagation of radiofrequency waves, such as attenuation, diffraction, reflection and scattering. These effects can lead to other undesired problems, such as multipath. When the ground is responsible for wave reflections, multipath can be modeled as the ground reflection effect. This paper presents an innovative mathematical model for improving the accuracy of RTLSs, focusing on the mitigation of the ground reflection effect by using multilayer perceptron artificial neural networks.

Ambient intelligence and collaborative e-learning: a new definition model

The constant evolution of mobile devices and Information Technologies allows users to enjoy a new variety of features that were unimaginable some years ago. In this sense, Ambient Intelligence (AmI) has emerged as a new discipline focused on people and aimed at facilitating their daily activities. This paper proposes a new definition model that helps designers to characterize collaborative e-learning systems based on AmI and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. The use of mobile devices and Mobile Adhoc Networks is a key aspect in this model as they allow users to access resources from anywhere on demand. The proposed model is applied to a concrete case of study as an example of its application on real scenarios.

Distributing Functionalities in a SOA-Based Multi-agent Architecture

This paper presents how functionalities are distributed my means of FUSION@, a SOA-based multi-agent architecture. FUSION@ introduces a new perspective for constructing multiagent systems, facilitating the integration with service-oriented architectures, and the agents act as coordinators and administrators of services. FUSION@ makes use of several mechanisms for managing and optimizing the services distribution. The results obtained demonstrate that FUSION@ can efficiently distribute functionalities in dynamic scenarios at execution time.

Cloud Computing Integrated into Service-Oriented Multi-Agent Architecture

The main objective of Cloud Computing is to provide software, services and computing infrastructures carried out independently by the network. This concept is based on the development of dynamic, distributed and scalable software. In this way there are Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and agent frameworks which provide tools for developing distributed systems and multiagent systems that can be used for the establishment of cloud computing environments. This paper presents CISM@ (Cloud computing Integrated into Service-Oriented Multi-Agent) architecture set on top of the platforms and frameworks by adding new layers for integrating a SOA and Cloud Computing approach and facilitating the distribution and management of functionalities.