Smart Residential Buildings as Learning Agent Organizations in the Internet of Things

Background: Smart buildings are one of the major application areas of technologies bound to embedded systems and the Internet of things. Such systems have to be adaptable and flexible in order to provide better services to its residents. Modelling such systems is an open research question. Herein, the question is approached using an organizational modelling methodology bound to the principles of the learning organization. Objectives: Providing a higher level of abstraction for understanding, developing and maintaining smart residential buildings in a more human understandable form. Methods/Approach: Organization theory provides us with the necessary concepts and methodology to approach complex organizational systems. Results: A set of principles for building learning agent organizations, a formalization of learning processes for agents, a framework for modelling knowledge transfer between agents and the environment, and a tailored organizational structure for smart residential buildings based on Nonaka’s hypertext organizational form. Conclusions: Organization theory is a promising field of research when dealing with complex engineering systems.