A Multi-agent Based Architecture for an Assistive User Interface of Intelligent Home Environment Control

This study proposes a multi-agent based architecture to support the intelligent home environment (IHE) control with an assistive user interface. The architecture is composed of six different agents (including assistive user interface, broke, appliance control, security surveillance, environmental monitoring, and communication agents) and an IHE controller. They interact in coordination and cooperation with each other to achieve the multi-goals of IHE control. The assistive user interface agent is designed to accommodate special dialogue needs such as screen reading, text conversation, and graphic user interface adapting. The hardware design is also proposed to support easy deployment. The JADE framework is employed in the multi-agent system development process with the support of PTK CASE tool. A case application is conducted thereafter by our research group for a case with severe spinal cord injuries.