DCOP for Smart Homes: A Case Study

The aim of this article is to bring forth the issue of integrating the services provided by intelligent artifacts in Ambient Intelligence applications. Specifically, we propose a Distributed Constraint Optimization procedure for achieving a functional integration of intelligent artifacts in a smart home. To this end, we employ ADOPT-N, a state-of-the-art algorithm for solving Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOP). This article attempts to state the smart home coordination problem in general terms, and provides the details of a DCOP-based approach by describing a case study taken from the ROBOCARE project. More specifically, we show how (1) DCOP is a convenient metaphor for casting smart home coordination problems, and (2) the specific features which distinguish ADOPT-N from other algorithms for DCOP represent a strong asset in the smart home domain.