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Where Passive Applications Can Lead

New types of software applications and automated routines are not far away. These technology forms could operate independently, without human control, to carry out prescribed tasks. Researchers have created a model that supports the applications development constructed from mobile sentient objects. Firstly though, developers need to overcome the shortcomings of current architectures and middleware, which are still largely based on sequential programming models. The CORTEX project aimed to overcome such obstacles, and to explore the fundamental theoretical and engineering issues involved in supporting the use of `sentient objects`.

`On the one hand we have classical control systems that are programmed in a strictly sequential manner to respond to a precisely-defined sequence of events,` says project coordinator Paulo Ver?ssimo of the University of Lisbon. `On the other, we have the outside world where environments interact and little can be predicted with certainty. If we are to construct highly interactive things like mobile robots, wearable devices that can react intelligently to their environment, augmented-reality systems, etc., we need to know how to programme these applications.`

`We gave these applications context-awareness, enabling them to understand what is going on in their immediate surroundings. For example a robot that could go into a rescue area without prior knowledge of the area and its surroundings,` says Ver?ssimo. `Applications like these are able to cooperate to analyse ? autonomously ? their environment, and react accordingly.`

The project aimed to design a programming model for applications constructed from mobile sentient objects. The participants have successfully designed a programming model to underpin the development of mobile and self-aware or sentient applications. They produced an open, scalable system architecture that provides mappings for various network types, from controller area networks (CAN) through LANs to WANs, especially those based on wireless communications technologies. They also prototyped the middleware needed to support the model by providing the protocols and services required to support these sentient objects.