Autonomic robot for assisted living: supporting smart environment occupants through sensor substitution

Abstract

The research presented in this thesis investigates the viability of utilising a mobile robot as a substitute for faulty static sensors exhibiting anomalous behaviour at a door in a Smart Environment. This is implemented through the development of finite state automata for the management of static sensor events. Novel approaches for the introduction of adaptability to finite state automata and the investigation of static sensor anomalies are proposed. This research was executed through the use of both practical and theoretical investigations. The ideas proposed in this work were developed as software artefacts. The functionality of that software was tested in order to assess the validity of the approaches proposed within this body of work. The results of this research show that the utilisation of a mobile robot in a Smart Environment is a viable means of providing substitution for static sensor functionality about a door and can be used as a means of verifying the presence of a systemic static sensor anomaly. Adaptive finite state automata were successfully developed and validated as a means of implementing the self-healing property of the Autonomic Computing paradigm in a software system. The limitations of this research have been identified and considered in the conclusion of this thesis as areas for future work.

Date of Award	Mar 2017
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department for Employment and Learning & Health Informatics Society of Ireland Research Bursary Award
Supervisor	Roy Sterritt (Supervisor) & George Wilkie (Supervisor)