Autonomous and Self Controlling Smart Objects for the Future Internet

Development of IoT applications relies heavily on middleware architectures. Multiple solutions have been proposed using service and agent paradigms, which consequently impose a specific application development model. We observe a trend towards a data-feeder approach in which smart objects are simple data gatherers and senders. This approach reduces the autonomy of smart objects and brings privacy concerns about the data and service manipulation by remote applications and services. We propose a new approach for middleware and application development for smart objects based on Web agents and services. Specifically, we integrate services as part of activities included in roles of a web agent allowing us to keep control of the service and data generated on-object, in contrast to delegating to remote applications or services. In addition, our P2P-inspired method for service discovery gives autonomy to smart objects since a central directory is not required to interact with others. We completed an initial implementation of our architecture and demonstrated its feasibility in a case study in the smart home domain.