A Communication Layer for Integrated Sensors and Robotic ecology Solutions to Ambient Intelligence

This paper presents a communication framework built to simplify the construction of robotic ecologies, i.e., networks of heterogeneous computational nodes interfaced with sensors, actuators, and mobile robots. Building integrated ambient intelligence (AmI) solutions out of such a wide range of heterogeneous devices is a key requirement for a range of application domains, such as home automation, logistic, security and Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). This goal is challenging since these ecologies need to adapt to changing environments and especially when they include tiny embedded devices with limited computational resources. We discuss a number of requirements characterizing this type of systems and illustrate how they have been addressed in the design of the new communication framework. The most distinguishing aspect of our frameworks is the transparency with which the same communication features are offered across heterogeneous programming languages and operating systems under a consistent API. Finally, we illustrate how the framework has been used to bind together and to support the operations of all the components of adaptive robotic ecologies in two real-world test-beds.