Federico Cabitza, Marco P' Locatelli, Carla Simone

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Cooperation and Ubiquitous-Computing an
architecture towards their integration

• Federico Cabitza, Marco P. Locatelli, Carla
  Simone
• Coordination Models and Architectures Lab.
• University of Milano-Bicocca

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Only a new fashion?

• two problems
• UC mainly focuses on individuals
• the discontinuity generated by the desktop
• a positive mutual influence
• a new chance for the notion of context

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Context not as a representational problem ...

• in agreement with Dourish 2004
• representation needs are reduced since you act
  and move in the environment

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Context as an interactional problem

• ok, context is the part of the environment that
  makes sense to us, here and now
• moreover, since we act and move in it dynamicity
  is less problematic

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The main advantage

• physical and logical contexts can be smoothly
  integrated
• a richer interpretation of physical and logical
  cues

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The main disadvantage

• designing applications becomes more complex
• entities of different nature (from actors to
  devices)
• distributed computations
• distributed presentations
• distributed sensors
• a reference model/framework is needed

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Research Areas
MAS
Distributed rule-based systems
HCI

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From

• Santana
• Distributed Jess
• Middleware
• Ambient intelligence distributed inferential
  capabilities

• MMASS
• Multi-layered Multi-Agent Situated Systems
• Awareness negotiation propagation and
  consumption
• physical and logical spaces

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to CASMAS

• Community-Aware Situated MAS
• A model
• A framework
• To design agent-based systems able to support
  cooperation in ubiquitous-computing environments
• Ubiquitous collaborative environments

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CASMAS

• Focus on community of actors
• Community enforcing
• Modulated participation
• Full integration of
• Coordination/cooperation
• Awareness

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Community enforcing as a service

• defines participation
• governed by local policies and conventions
• maintains a memory
• defines local artifacts
• different levels of institutionalization

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Community enforcing as a service

• the framework makes these features ready at hand
• users are supported accordingly
• users can decide to break the policies
• monitoring rules application

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Modulated ParticipationTaking Part in the
Community
Community
Mark
Sue
Sarah
Paul
Mr. Brown
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Modulated ParticipationLow/Peripheral Involvement
Community
aware of with medium intensity
Mark
Sue
Mark
Sarah
Paul
Mr. Brown
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Modulated ParticipationHigh Involvement
Community
aware of with high intensity
Mark
Sue
Mark
Sarah
Paul
Mr. Brown
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Modulated ParticipationComposition
aware of
aware of
Community
aware of
Mark
Sue
Mark
Sarah
Paul
Mr. Brown
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CASMAS Model
FACTS the project plan is available RULES if
X is member of the workshop community then quiet
all Xs ringing devices if the project plan is
available and X is interested in it then retrieve
it
Cooperative app
Community fulcrum
assertion
C
reaction
Private fulcrum
Manager
Manager
emission
Field diffusion
A
perception
Awareness graph
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CASMAS Model
Cooperative app
Personal app
Community fulcrum
C
C
C
Private fulcrum
Manager
Private fulcrum
Manager
Manager
A
A
Awareness graph
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CASMAS at work
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CASMAS at work
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Services Provided by Devices

• Devices are service providers
• Reification of the services they provide (NOT of
  the device itself)
• Informer provides information to the system
• Realizer uses information acquired from the
  system
• A service can be
• Passive/Pull must be invoked
• Active/Push acts autonomously
• So we can have
• Passive/active informer the env conditions
  service
• Passive/active realizer the show message
  service

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High-level Architecture
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Key Features

• Open
• Software applications, environment
• Support both physical and logical indicators
• Represented through graphs
• Modulated participation
• Dynamic
• Adaptive-configuration
• Acquisition of behaviors
• Adaptive-evolution
• Adapts the structure of the modeled system

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Current/Future Work

• Definition of the CASMAS language
• Refinement of a key scenario to validate and
  evaluate CASMAS
• Study of a development environment for CASMAS
• Define a rationale to design collaborative
  ubiquitous environments