HOW TO BUILD AN OPEN

PLATFORM FOR SMART

BUILDINGSULRIK EKLUND 2015

IoT research has focused on technological infrastructure

But in order to develop successful products and services, the perspective of the users must be integrated

We are about 25 researchers from Computer Science andInteraction Design at MAHfocusing on:

Interactiontechnology

Embeddedintelligence

User-centereddevelopment

ELIS PROJECT

Funded by Vinnova: Utmaningsdriven

Innovation and the collaborating

partners

PROBLEM

A lot of talk about smart buildings!

Why don’t we see more of this already?

• Vertically integrated systems

• No 3rd party services

• Contract form of construction

• Cost of infrastructure – fixed installations– Sensors, control systems, wiring, cost of

work, etc.

CHALLENGES

ADDRESSED

Energy waste in buildings

– Use IoT technology

– develop ecosystem of

services (apps)

Existing buildings

– use retro-fit technology

– reuse of existing hardware and

infrastructure

CHALLENGES

ADDRESSED

Technological “lock-in”

– interoperability

– provide open API:s

Usability

– mobile devices as user-interfaces

– user-centered development (Living

labs)

THE ELIS APPROACH

Integration of existing systems

Open platform

Minimal subsequent installations

Can mobile services minimize the need

of infrastructure?

– Indoor positioning?

– Mobile phone sensors?

CONSORTIUM

ELIS PROJECT GOALS

Open platform for mobile energy

efficiency services

– Enabling 3rd-party developers to

provide mobile services

A set of mobile services evaluated at

two types of test sites:

– Apartment buildings

– Schools

ELIS PROJECT GOALS

Business models and value-creation

mechanisms

– Create win-win-win for all parties in

the user-supplier-provider chain

Knowledge development

– Lessons learned

– Identification of future challenges

EXAMPLE SERVICE:

ELIS MOBILE (FOR APARTMENTS)

Shows energy and water consumption

for a specific user’s apartment

Lists and shows devices in an

apartment

Allows the user to answer questions

about the app, their consumption and

also provide general feedback

ANOTHER SERVICE:

IF THIS THEN THAT

DELIVERABLES

APIs

– REST-based API for 3rd-party developers

– Internal Java-based API for platform

developers

Platform reference implementation

– https://github.com/iotap-center/elis-

platform

Mobile service prototypes (e.g.

Crowdis)

MORE DELIVERABLES

Documentation

– Platform deployment instructions

– Code & design documentation

– Platform development documentation

– API documentation

Security roadmap

Proposed future work

Lessons learned

PLATFORM

ARCHITECTURE

Design decisions driving the platform

architecture

ARCHITECTURE QUALITIES

Openness: Easy to develop new applications

utilising the API

Interoperability/integrability: The platform

shall not be dependent on services or devices

supplied by a certain organisation

Modifiability: It shall be easy to extend the

platform over time with new services

– those provided by different vendors, and

– those services available through the API

ARCHITECTURE QUALITIES

Security: Certain services shall only be

allowed to authenticated users

– services shall be possible to restrict

Cost, in particular:

– Infrastructure, things for making stuff happen;

servers, gateways, physical devices, etc.

– Application service development cost

– Operation costs for running a system

Availability: The uptime of platform services

shall be maximised

ARCHITECTURE QUALITIES

• Usability for the end-user is the responsibility of the

applications service developers

– The platform should support abstractions

relevant for the end-user to be used by

developers

• Performance: A service provided by the platform

shall respond sufficiently fast

• Scalability: The number of devices a platform can

manage shall not be limited by the software

implementation of the platform

DESIGN RATIONALE

Simplicity and interoperability of the

public API are prioritised

Public API conforms to REST

– Accepting that not all proprietary

services can be implemented or be

made available to 3rd -party

developers

DESIGN RATIONALE

Modifiability, scalability and cost for

infrastructure are prioritised

OSGi as the framework for

implementing the platform

– Accepting translation of device and

vendor services to and from Java within

the platform

LOGICAL VIEW

DEPLOYMENT

CONFIGURATION

Showing how various

running software

interacts

1ST EXAMPLE OF

PHYSICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Deployment where

the Elis platform

runs on a separate

cloud server

Typical implemen-

tation when proto-

typing

2ND EXAMPLE OF

PHYSICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Deployment where

both the vendor

services and the

Elis platform runs

on a local server

within the building

system

SERVICES WITHIN THE ELIS

PLATFORM

DEVELOPMENT OF THE

ELIS PLATFORM

Agility in practice

WAYS-OF-WORKING

Architecture

Platform

Prototype

4 week cycle

One page architecture

Internet of things architecture

Service oriented architecture

OSGi

Java

OpenAPI

Rapid prototyping

Mock-ups

Living labs

SOME

EXPERIENCES

The devil is in the

details

No standards for

designing devices

SOME

EXPERIENCES

Hard to find the killer

app

Vision changes

during a long project,

both

• what services

should be offered,

• the technical

infrastructure

MORE INFORMATION

HTTP://IOTAP.MAH.SE/ELIS-

PLATFORM/

HTTPS://GITHUB.COM/IOTAP-

CENTER/ELIS-PLATFORM

HTTP://DOCS.ELIS1.APIARY.I

O/