This project provides a generic framework for monitoring and control of individual objects, called Smart Objects System (SOS).

SOS overview

The first main purpose of this framework is to enable applications which need to hold a high number of real-life objects, including their properties, for monitoring and control purposes. Such objects can be virtually anything, for example planes, trains, trucks, buildings, trees, animals, weather, tweets, etc. Next to that, it should be easy for the users to investigate and analyse all these objects. In order to achieve this, the framework provides functionality to create a web interface, which enables the users to easily browse and search through all the objects, as well as to visualise them on a world map.

The second main purpose of this framework is to provide each individual real-life object with intelligence by means of software agents. The provided intelligence can be used for problem detection. An agent representing an object can for example determine whether the object's current status is problematic or not, which can be useful for monitoring purposes. Next to that, the provided intelligence can be used for decision support. An agent representing an object can communicate and negotiate with other agents, for example to discover opportunities on how problematic situations can be resolved. Therefore, besides the web interface, the framework also provides functionality to create e-mail notifications, which can pro-actively inform the users about objects with a problematic status as well as possible opportunities on how problematic situations can be resolved.

Demo applications

Currently, there are two documented demo application available: Budapest Interactive City Map and Dutch Weather Map. The first application only demonstrates how SOS can be used for information handling, the second application shows how SOS can be used for both information handling and problem detection.

Other applications

Besides the two demo applications, three other applications have been developed: SOSTransportation, SOSProduction, and GlobalTweets. The first two application are developed for monitoring and control of transportation and production, respectively. The last application is developed for discovering what is happening right now on Twitter.

Latest publication

Effective Monitoring and Control with Intelligent Products. Gerben G. Meyer. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Groningen, 2011. [PDF]

All publications related to the Smart Objects System can be found in the wiki.