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A SmartSpace is an integrated, intelligent, environment that facilitates new dimensions of human interaction with computing and physical environments by leveraging emerging trends in pervasive computing. The SmartSpace for automation (SSA) proposed here facilitates interactions between humans and an automation system. Current human‐computer interaction (HCI) approaches for automation are based on a state‐transition paradigm using splintered devices that are attached locally to controllers. Such approaches are unlikely to extend to future generations of automation systems because of the fundamental limitations they impose on the tasks that can be accomplished, the lack of support for holistic system‐wide decision‐making, and the lack of a systematic framework that can guide the adoption of emerging pervasive devices for HCI activities. The approach we describe for developing an SSA is based on a goal‐seeking paradigm and emphasizes the explicit representation and resolution of uncertainties.

The aim of this research is to investigate whether a collection of tiny, resource constrained, microcontrollers that communicate with each other over wireless links can perform rigorous automation tasks.

We identify three building blocks that are necessary to obtain large conveyor systems. The operation of each building block is regulated by a local microcontroller and the microcontrollers interact via wireless links to coordinate the operations across blocks. We define the actions necessary in each block and discuss two example applications for this method.

It is necessary to fundamentally revisit how automation applications are engineered to get the benefits of new technologies. We show that the three blocks that we call segment, turnaround and crossover are sufficient to obtain a large variety of conveyor systems. By embedding the blocks in a grid, we can simplify the design of the conveyor systems.

Extensions of this research to identify a set of building blocks for discrete automation applications and motion control applications could provide new insights, architectures and methods for future automation systems.

When fully realized, this approach can save engineering costs, commissioning costs and provide new approaches for managing faults in automation systems.

The three building blocks for conveyor systems and the method of programming the blocks that allows the blocks to be configured in a variety of ways to realize conveyor systems for many applications.

This paper aims to present an overview of the challenges encountered in integrating visual search interfaces into digital libraries and repositories. These challenges come in various forms, including information visualisation, the use of knowledge organisation systems and metadata quality. The main purpose of this study is the identification of criteria for the evaluation and integration of visual search interfaces, proposing guidelines and recommendations to improve information retrieval tasks with emphasis on the education-al context.

The information included in this study was collected based on a systematic literature review approach. The main information sources were explored in several digital libraries, including Science Direct, Scopus, ACM and IEEE, and include journal articles, conference proceedings, books, European project reports and deliverables and PhD theses published in an electronic format. A total of 142 studies comprised the review.

There are several issues that authors did not fully discuss in this literature review study; more specific, aspects associated with access of digital resources in digital libraries and repositories based on human computer interaction, i.e. usability and learnability of user interfaces; design of a suitable navigation method of search based on simple knowledge organisation schemes; and the use of usefulness of visual search interfaces to locate relevant resources.

The main steps for carrying out a systematic review are drawn from health care; this methodology is not commonly used in fields such as digital libraries and repositories. The authors aimed to apply the fundamentals of the systematic literature review methodology considering the context of this study. Additionally, there are several aspects of accessibility that were not considered in the study, such as accessibility to content for disabled people as defined by ISO/IEC 40500:2012.

No other systematic literature reviews have been conducted in this field. The research presents an in-depth analysis of the criteria associated with searching and navigation methods based on the systematic literature review approach. The analysis is relevant for researchers in the field of digital library and repository creation in that it may direct them to considerations in designing and implementing visual search interfaces based on the use of information visualisation.