Modular and Hierarchical Discrete Control for Applications and Middleware Deployment in IoT and Smart Buildings

In the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Homes and Buildings, sensors and actuators are controlled through a management software, that runs on a distributed network of heterogeneous processors. Such management systems have to be self-adaptive w.r.t. different aspects, at applications level (functionalities) as well as deployment level (software tasks, execution platform). Holding a well-mastered and safe behaviour of the overall system, in presence of these concurrent adaptations, is a complex control problem. We approach this problem by applying techniques from the area of Supervisory Control for Discrete Event Systems (DES), where the space of configurations at the different levels are modeled with automata. We use programming language support tools, HeptagonIBZR and ReaX, to build up a design environment for the considered application domain. This paper contributes with (i) generic behavioural models for both the applicative and deployment aspects of systems; (ii) applications of Discrete Controller Synthesis (DCS) to design controllers, especially modular and hierarchical control structures; (iii) an implemented case study.