An Ontological Approach to Integrating Task Representations in Sensor Networks

The sensor tasking problem in sensor networks involves the representation of users’ tasks (user-level tasking) in a form which a sensor network needs to perform required operations (sensor-level tasking) leading to satisfaction of the tasks. We analysed four approaches to task representation (TR) in sensor networks: the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Sensor Web Enablement, Goal Lattices, Semantic Streams, and Sensor Assignment to Missions. Each approach considers distinct aspect of the sensor tasking problem. We used the Web Ontology Language, OWL, to define the features of each TR, which enabled us then to identify mappings between them. These mappings allow us to combine the TRs into one hybrid task representation (HTR) that addresses both user-level and sensor-level tasking, thus providing a more complete, integrated approach to the sensor tasking problem. In this paper (presented as both poster and demonstration) we introduce our HTR integrated into a system working on a sensor network. It shows how a rich semantic representation of task, such as the HTR, can be used to automatically control system operations on the network, thus making it more adaptable to changes within the state of the network resources (e.g. sensor malfunction) or tasks (e.g. change of a task’s requirements).