corresponding author

Abstract — Pervasive computing environments such as smart spaces require a mechanism to easily integrate, manage and use numerous and heterogeneous sensors and actuators into the system. However, available sensor network platforms are inadequate for this task. From a recent real-world deployment we learned that development of smart spaces is very different in goals and requirements from the typical sensor network application. Specifically, we found that the manual integration of sensors and actuators needs to be replaced by a scalable, plug-and-play mechanism. Additionally, the smart space should be assembled programmatically by software developers instead of hardwired by engineers and system integrators. This allows for cost-effective development, enables extensibility, and simplifies change management. Also, we found that in a smart space, computation and power are readily available and connectivity is stable and rarely ad-hoc. Our deployment of a smart house (designed as an assistive environment for the elderly) has guided us to designing Atlas, a new, commercially available service-oriented sensor and actuator platform that enables the concepts of self-integrative, programmable pervasive spaces. We present the design and implementation of the Atlas hardware and middleware components. We present Atlas’s salient characteristics and describe several case studies in which Atlas has been used