Situation modeling

Today's automation systems are made capable to work together for perceiving and recognizing a global situation, instead of identifying a situation only to some extent. This paper presents a model for the cooperation of systems of different technologies preliminary focused on home and building automation handled by several data processing layers. The model enables the creation of complex systems based on interoperability and more reliable and dependable control. The approach discussed is founded on situation modeling which requires extensive information about the environment to be collected from all sensors independent of their interface technology. Data is transformed into abstract symbols. A combination of symbols leads to representation of current situations. The model includes aspects out of the areas of computer science, measurement technologies and home and building automation.