SmartRL: A context-sensitive, ontology-based rule language for assisted living in smart environments

Abstract

To automate assisted living tasks in smart environments, the contextual and temporal aspects associated with activities of daily life (ADL) can be exploited to (1) detect and act upon inconsistent context, i.e., when an activity occurs outside of its usual context; and (2) guidance through ADL routines, by automatically executing or suggesting a next subtask at the correct context. This paper presents SmartRL, a context-sensitive rule language supporting task automation in smart environments, and applies it to an Assisted Ambient Living (AAL) use case. SmartRL realizes a number of key opportunities in this setting, such as linking the language to a domain ontology, and facilitating the detection and influencing of context; as well as considering the temporal nature of smart environment rules, the need to revert rule effects, and writing activity routines.