語意式、無所不在、且可自訂流程的智慧型家庭自動化系統

Abstract

智慧型家電與智慧型家庭自動化的觀念已經被提出了很久。然而，當人們提到未來的智慧家庭系統，許多相關研究皆著重於將不同的智慧家電與設備配置在家庭的環境中，並且依照預先定義好的流程來進行自動化的家電控制。使用者可自訂流程的智慧型家庭自動化議題至今還沒有被人們普遍重視。提供使用者可自訂流程的困難之處源自於異質、複雜、且不斷變化的家庭環境。此外，使用者通常會以語意的方式來思考如何控制家中的電器，例如 “我想要將所有位於二樓的電燈全部關掉”。如果一個智慧型家庭自動化系統無法接受語意式的命令，及提供語意式的回應，使用者則必須為了一件工作制訂多個流程，並且時常修改與維護它們。本論文提出了一個可接受語意式命令及提供語意式回應，並且允許使用者自行制訂流程的智慧型家庭自動化系統，稱為 USHAS (User-configurable Semantic Home Automation System)。USHAS 採用 Web Service 及 WSBPEL 的技術來執行自動化流程、OWL 與 OWL-S 的技術來定義家庭環境及服務以及一個我們定義的語言：SHPL (Semantic Home Process Language)，來描述語意化的流程。

為了提供方便且親切的使用者介面，USHAS 讓使用者可以透過網頁介面來定義家中的環境以及所有的自動化流程。如此一來，使用者不但可以藉由個人電腦上的網頁瀏覽器存取 USHAS，也可以藉由手持式裝置上的瀏覽器隨時隨地觀察家中的環境現況並且控制家電。除此之外，USHAS 也可扮演家庭資訊中心的角色。USHAS 可對使用者有興趣的網頁及所安裝的網頁應用程式提供在 PC 與手持式裝置上皆可離線瀏覽與執行的功能。

The ideas of smart home and home automation have been proposed for many years. However, when discussing homes of the future, related studies have usually focused on deploying various smart appliances (or devices) within a home environment and employing those appliances automatically by pre-defined procedures. The issue of user-configurable home automation has largely been neglected recently. The difficulties of supporting user-configurable automation are due to the complexity of various dynamic home environments. Within their home domains, users usually think semantically; for example, “I want to turn off all the lights on the second floor”. If a home automation system cannot accept semantic commands or provide semantic feedback, users may have to create multiple processes for one task and modify them frequently. This thesis proposes a semantic home automation system, USHAS (User-configurable Semantic Home Automation System), which adopts Web Service and WSBPEL for executing automated process; OWL and OWL-S for defining home environments and service ontology; and a self-defined markup language, SHPL (Semantic Home Process Language), for describing semantic processes.

To provide convenient and friendly user interface, USHAS allows users to define their home environments and automation processes via Web pages. In this manner, users can access USHAS and control appliances not only on their PCs but also on their mobile devices. Moreover, USHAS is also able to play the role of home information broker. USHAS can provide the capability of offline browsing and executing the user-selected Web pages and Web applications on PCs and mobile devices.