Smart environment: using a multi-agent system to manage users and spaces preferences conflicts

Abstract

In this new technological era of the Internet of Things (IoT), people search for comfort and everything that can simplify their daily lives. This paper proposes a smart environment to help achieve this purpose. The problem or challenge, which aims to overcome this, can be defined in general terms as a contribution to creating intelligent environments capable of adapting to the user’s comfort, needs, and preferences in an automatic, transparent, and non-invasive way, whether these environments are for domestic, professional, or public use. We propose the use of a multi-agent system to achieve the management of the user’s preferences, as well as any preference conflicts that may naturally exist. In this way, the space can adapt smartly to the present user’s preferences in a transparent and non-invasive way. This solution also supports the user’s mobility between different spaces and at different times, making it a fully ubiquitous solution, and consequently, an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) solution. We have developed a complete specification of an architecture that supports the proposed solution. The multi-agent system is fully developed, tested, and validated with the presented results.