Abstract
Ubiquitous computing applications provide pervasive support to users in a self-adaptive and non-obtrusive way. Applications reason about the user situation and adapt dynamically, often without explicit user interaction. Such applications exploit technical features such as context awareness, context reasoning, adaptation models, dynamic resource discovery/binding, and self-configuration. The engineering of ubiquitous computing applications is a challenge because the user acceptance depends not only on functional features but at least as much on non-functional and user-related features that we address under the term “social awareness”. In this paper we present an interdisciplinary development approach for self-adaptive applications that takes into account social awareness requirements in a systematic and integrated manner. Our focus is on usability, trust, and legality. We present the ingredients of our new methodology and its evaluation based on application prototypes. Our approach is compatible with existing software engineering process models and practices.
About the authors
Kurt Geihs is a full professor in the EECS Department at the University of Kassel (Germany). His research and teaching interests include distributed systems, operating systems, and software technology. Current research projects focus on self-adaptive context-aware systems, collaborative autonomous mobile robots, and management of service-oriented computing systems. He coordinates the interdisciplinary research cluster “Design of Socio-Technical Networking Applications in Situative Ubiquitous Computing Systems (VENUS)”. He has published more than 150 refereed articles and is author/co-author/editor of several books. Before joining the University of Kassel he was professor at TU Berlin and University of Frankfurt, and researcher at the IBM European Networking Center in Heidelberg. He was a guest scientist at Sintef and NTNU in Trondheim (Norway), University of Pretoria (South Africa), Microsoft Research in Cambridge (UK) and IBM Research in Hawthorne (USA). He holds a PhD from RWTH Aachen, a M. Sc. from UC Los Angeles (USA), and a Diplom Degree from TU Darmstadt, all in Computer Science.
Forschungszentrum für Informationstechnik-Gestaltung (ITeG), Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel
Stefan Niemczyk is a research assistant and PhD student in the Distributed Systems Group at the University of Kassel (Germany). He has worked in the VENUS research cluster at the multi-disciplinary Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG). His research focusses on knowledge processing and world modelling in teams of heterogeneous robots. He holds a M. Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Kassel.
Forschungszentrum für Informationstechnik-Gestaltung (ITeG), Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel
Alexander Roßnagel is a full professor for Public Law (Technology and Environmental Law) in the Economics and Management Department at the University of Kassel (Germany). His research and teaching focus on information and telecommunication technology law, electronic signature law, data protection law, and environmental law. He holds positions as director of the Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG), Competence Center for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption (CliMA), and Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR). He was appointed Fellow of the German Computer Science Association (GI) in 2007 and received the Research Award of the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation in 1993. From 2003–2011 he was a vice president of the University of Kassel. He is author/co-author/editor of more than 100 books and contributed to more than ten draft bills. He has published very extensively in journals and conferences. He holds a Habilitation degree from the Technical University Darmstadt and a PhD from the University of Giessen.
Forschungszentrum für Informationstechnik-Gestaltung (ITeG), Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel
Andreas Witsch is a research assistant and PhD student in the Distributed Systems Group at the University of Kassel (Germany). He is also a member of the Carpe Noctem robotic soccer team. Until 2012 he worked in the VENUS research cluster at the multi-disciplinary Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG). His research focusses on behaviour modelling and coordination for teams of autonomous robots. He holds a M. Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Kassel.
Forschungszentrum für Informationstechnik-Gestaltung (ITeG), Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel
©2014 Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
