Using IoT middleware solutions in interdisciplinary research projects in the context of AAL

Research projects in the field of Active and Assisted Living (AAL) are dedicated to enhance quality of life and independent living of the elderly by providing assistive technical and non-technical solutions. With the progress of the Age of Internet of Things (IoT) and digitalization, the implemented applications are also often focused on the integration of IoT technologies. As the field of AAL is characterized by a high amount of interdisciplinarity, there arises the need of integrating various proprietary solutions to one comprehensive application. This can be achieved by using dedicated IoT middleware solutions which provide the possibility to integrate information from different systems, users and devices into one comprehensive application. The aim of this paper is to show an overview on the process of interdisciplinary research in the field of AAL and to demonstrate the arising requirements for IoT middleware solutions in the given context. Furthermore, selected middleware frameworks and platforms are presented and the implementation of one selected solution is described for a given use case from the Smart VitAALity project.