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This research proposes an innovative fault-tolerant media content list management technology applied to the smart robot domain.

A fault tolerant Content List Management Unit (CLMU) for real-time streaming systems focusing on smart robot claw machines is proposed to synchronize and manage the hyperlink stored on media servers. The fault-tolerant mechanism is realized by the self-healing method. A media server allows exchanging the hyperlink within the network through the CLMU mechanism.

Internet users can access the current multimedia information, and the multimedia information list can be rearranged appropriately. Furthermore, the service of the proposed multimedia system should be uninterrupted even when the master media server fails. Therefore, one of the slave media servers enables the Content List Service (CLS) of the proposed CLMU and replaces the defunct master media server.

The recovery time is less than 1.5 seconds. The multimedia transmission is not interrupted while any one of the media servers keeps functioning. The proposed method can serve to stabilize the system of media servers in a smart robot domain.

The growing complexity of industrial robot work‐cells calls for the use of advanced orchestration techniques to promote flexibility and reusability. This paper aims to present a solution based on service‐oriented platforms that endorses the separation of concerns, coordination and execution.

This paper starts with the evaluation of available tools for the orchestration and service generation. Endorsing the missing features depicted in that evaluation, the paper describes developments of concepts and software and the evaluation made.

From the early evaluations made in this paper, the SCXML‐based purposed language is more adapted to the industrial robotic cell scenario than existing alternatives. The generation of services allow the integration without knowledge from any programming language.

This approach's main drawback, as described by some users, was the lack of some programming features: simple math operations and conditional statements.

This paper fulfils two partially unsolved problems: adequate languages for orchestration of service oriented on the device level and purposes techniques for the specification of services using robot programming languages.

Despite several efforts during the last years, the web model and semantic web technologies have not yet been successfully applied to empower Ubiquitous Computing architectures in order to create knowledge‐rich environments populated by interconnected smart devices. In this paper we point out some problems of these previous initiatives and introduce SoaM (Smart Objects Awareness and Adaptation Model), an architecture for designing and seamlessly deploying web‐powered context‐aware semantic gadgets. Implementation and evaluation details of SoaM are also provided in order to identify future research challenges.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the complete integration of building automation systems is the final outcome in the evolution of intelligent buildings. Security systems, energy management systems, fire alarm systems are some of the automation systems that are converging to produce a single integrated environment for building automation. These systems can execute global strategies so that the building is able to function in harmony. But one question is starting to emerge from this seemingly inevitable convergence. Is the consolidation of a single building automation protocol actually precluding possibilities for communication beyond the building automation sphere? The organic nature of the modern built environment requires cooperation between organizational activities, means of production and the facility itself. This process of integration cannot be achieved whilst the building operation is seen to be independent from other communication and control systems. Argues that the process of integrating building systems may in fact isolate such systems from a much broader range of information technology systems. Describes the use of embedded Web servers, an area where open integration might be developed. Divergence rather than convergence appears to be the future for building automation systems.

Information used for performance measurement is very different from the kind of information used for control and monitoring. It tends to make use of aggregate data covering time intervals of months rather than minutes. Accuracy rather than precision is the overarching concern. Some performance indicators can be derived from building control data. Information such as conversion efficiencies of plant and energy efficiency of buildings can be calculated from monitored data. For the purposes of performance assessment, however, such data tend to be limited in scope. The advent of embedded web servers promises to change this situation radically. Not just data, but transformed information, can be generated by the coexistence of device‐people networks. Effectiveness becomes a measurable concept as web enabled devices create information designed for human interpretation rather than the interpretation of other computers.

Home networks enable, potentially, an increased level of integration among appliances present in the house, enabling an ubiquitous control of devices and simplifying man/machine interactions. This paper aims to present the home network interoperability (HoNeY) platform.

Home networks and their challenges are analyzed, then the technology that constitutes the base for the present implementation is briefly revised. The HoNeY platform is presented, in terms of its architecture, implementation, and constraints.

The HoNeY platform is an multimedia home platform (MHP)‐based, low‐complex, cost‐effective architecture for automatic discovery, configuration, and dynamic access to distributed services in home environments.

This paper describes HoNeY, a mechanism of service discovery and code mobility designed for interoperability of devices connected to home networks, compatible with the MHP standard.

Pervasive computing enhances the environment by embedding many computers that are gracefully integrated with human users. The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation of a smart context‐aware environment in which computation follows people and serves them everywhere. Building such smart environments is still difficult and complex due to lacking a uniform infrastructure that can adapt to diverse smart domains.

To address this problem, the paper proposes an agent‐based pluggable infrastructure which integrates a mobile agent system named pvMogent, establishes an ontology‐based context model and introduces a workflow‐based application model with the open services gateway initiative (OSGi) framework. By plugging corresponding domain context in ontology model and different applications, the infrastructure can be customized to various domains.

Through the implementation of several context‐aware applications, it was found that the infrastructure can largely reduce the development complexity as well as keep the domain extensibility by plugging corresponding domain context in ontology model.

In this paper, a number of key techniques are explored which are suitable for building context‐awareness. The experiences and lessons learned from the system development could further facilitate and inspire the research in this direction.

The purpose of this paper is to create new ideas for assistive technology products at home, especially products utilizing robotic consumer appliances available in the homes of elderly people. The work was founded on a reported increase in household robots as well as an ageing population in the industrialized world.

Technology should be something that is perceived as belonging to our own world that fits our daily practices. Earlier studies show that in addition to cleaning functions, new household robots could change home routines and people's relationship to them. Taking the previous studies as a starting point, the paper proposes a vacuum cleaner robot as a platform for developing pervasive safety services and describe implementation of a conceptual prototype which brings the feeling of safety to an older person and their relatives by assisting in case of accidents. Moreover, the results are presented of an empirical evaluation of the prototype with end-users.

It is proved that reasonably priced off-the-shelf components can be used to build the safety product demonstration model. The initial evaluation results, as well as referenced studies show that the acceptance rate of a household robot-based product is high, which is encouraging for further research in this domain. Also the paper could pinpoint areas that will require further work.

To add more practicality to the research and move towards product development, a strong industrial partner involved in household robotics would be needed. For increased reliability and robustness, more research is required in areas of advanced sensing technology and decision algorithms.

A novel concept of a safety product for elderly care based on a vacuum cleaner robot is presented and an attempt is made to increase awareness that there will be a demand for such products.

A decade and a half after the debut of pervasive computing, a large number of prototypes, applications, and interaction interfaces have emerged. However, there is a lack of consensus about the best approaches to create such systems or how to evaluate them. To address these issues, this paper aims to develop a performance evaluation framework for pervasive computing systems.

Based on the authors' experience in the Gator Tech Smart House – an assistive environment for the elderly, they established a reference scenario that was used to guide the analysis of the large number of systems they studied. An extensive survey of the literature was conducted, and through a thorough analysis, the authors derived and arrived at a broad taxonomy that could form a basic framework for evaluating existing and future pervasive computing systems.

A taxonomy of pervasive systems is instrumental to their successful evaluation and assessment. The process of creating such taxonomy is cumbersome, and as pervasive systems evolve with new technological advances, such taxonomy is bound to change by way of refinement or extension. This paper found that a taxonomy for something so broad as pervasive systems is very complex. It overcomes the complexity by focusing the classifications on key aspects of pervasive systems, decided purely empirically and based on the authors own experience in a real‐life, large‐scale pervasive system project.

There are currently no methods or frameworks for comparing, classifying, or evaluating pervasive systems. The paper establishes a taxonomy – a first step toward a larger evaluation methodology. It also provides a wealth of information, derived from a survey of a broad collection of pervasive systems.