A CA-Based Approach to Self-Organized Adaptive Environments: The Case of an Illumination Facility

The ambient intelligence scenario depicts electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. This paper presents an ambient intelligence system whose goal is to enhance the experience of pedestrians moving inside the related physical environment. In particular, in our approach the environment itself is endowed with a set of sensors that perceive the presence of humans (or other physical entities such as dogs, bicycles, cars) and interact with a set of actuators that choose their actions in an attempt improve the overall experience of these users. The specific scenario of application is the realization an adaptive illumination. The model guiding the interaction and action of sensors and actuators is a dissipative multilayered cellular automata, supporting a self-organization of the system as a response to the presence and movements of people inside it. The paper will introduce the model, as well as the results of simulations of its application in a concrete case study. A brief discussion of the potential use of this model and approach beyond this scenario will conclude the paper.