Main Objectives

The POBICOS project targets computing environments which feature collections of objects, equipped with sense-compute-actuate embedded nodes, which differ in their sensor, actuator and computing resources. Moreover, the actual mix of objects, and the resources provided by those objects, which will be available during execution is partly unknown when programming the application(s).

POBICOS aims to design, implement and test a platform that simplifies both the development and the deployment of applications for such heterogeneous and incompletely specified systems. The key challenge is to enable applications to take the best advantage of what-ever "resource opportunities" exist at runtime, provided by the objects that happen to be available. The platform shall make such "opportunistic" behaviour largely transparent to the programmer.

Towards this goal, the main objectives of POBICOS are:

• The design of a programming model and supporting mechanisms for opportunistic pervasive computing;
• An ontology-driven approach for modelling and flexibly accessing resources for a given application domain;
• The implementation of a corresponding middleware on top of embedded wireless sensor/actuator nodes;
• The provision of suitable resource abstraction and domain-based customisation tools as well as application development, simulation and deployment tools;
• The experimental validation of the middleware and tools for a selected application domain in the area of home automation.

The domain of energy efficiency at home will be used as the source of scenarios and requirements. Proof-of-concept applications will be tested in a real setting.

Vision

The POBICOS project aims to produce technology that will simplify the development and deployment of opportunistic computing applications to a considerable degree. On the one hand, the programmer will write applications with reference to a formal domain model that will make it possible to flexibly access resources at the desired level of abstraction without restricting the application to a specific (custom) device/appliance configuration. On the other hand, users will acquire and deploy applications in a natural way, with little or no explicit administrative overhead and zero technical knowhow; ideally, adding an application to one's home should be as simple as putting a sticker on a door.