A Context-Aware Workflow System for Dynamic Service Adaptation (original) (raw)

Towards context-aware workflows

2007

Context-aware applications adapt their behavior based on changes of the physical world, which is often obtained with a huge amount of sensors. Thus, the development of such applications is cumbersome, in particular the implementation of their often complex control flow. To ease the development of context-aware applications we present the concept of context-aware workflows. Thereafter we present an implementation of these concepts based on a standard workflow language. Context-aware workflows are not only interesting for the development of context-aware applications, but also enable workflow technology to be applied in new domains that are process oriented and yet not supported by workflow systems like production processes in the manufacturing industry. The concept of context-aware workflows is a first approach that enables modeling and execution of technical production processes with workflow systems normally used for business processes.

A survey on context-aware workflow adaptations

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multimedia - MoMM '08, 2008

Recently, workflow has been employed in pervasive computing systems to orchestrate and provide services to the users. Since pervasive computing systems emphasise context-awareness and adaptability, these two features must be included in the workflow mechanism in order to utilise workflow in pervasive environment. In this paper we present various existing approaches to adaptation in context-aware workflow. These approaches are compared based on the common adaptation characteristics identified from our study. Lastly, we discuss and point out the future challenges of predictive adaptation for context-aware workflows.

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF CONTEXT-AWARE WORKFLOW SYSTEMS

This paper presents the CAWE framework for the context-aware management of applications based on the composition of Web Services in complex workflows. We introduce a representation of context-dependent activities based on an abstraction hierarchy which supports the specification of synthetic and clear workflows. Moreover, we propose a framework architecture which enriches the capabilities of a workflow engine in order to support the execution of possibly complex adaptation rules. We have exploited the CAWE framework to develop a prototype application handling a medical guideline which specifies the activities to be performed in order to monitor patients treated with blood thinners from their home. The application coordinates actors playing different roles (e.g., patient, doctor, etc.) and can be accessed by using diverse client devices.

Requirements for context-aware, mobile workflow systems

2006

This paper describes novel work on context-aware workflow systems envisaged to integrate and utilise context information from pervasive environments to improve the enactment of mobile work processes. Work in dynamic, mobile environments requires workflow systems to be capable of utilising contextual events to be used in process enactment and coordination. The existing standards in workflow systems are investigated and extended with new requirements to cope with context-awareness. The concept of a smart work process is used to capture adaptive and contextaware process support. The requirements and design considerations for developing context-aware workflow systems are elaborated and then used to propose a new interface for handling context-awareness in workflow enactment services. This interface will serve as a link between the work environment and the workflow system.

Context-Aware Workflow Management

2007

We describe the CAWE framework for the management of context-aware workflow systems, based on Web Services. The framework is based on a hierarchical workflow representation supporting a synthetic and extensible specification of context-sensitive workflows, which can be executed by standard workflow engines. We have exploited the CAWE framework to develop a prototype application handling a medical guideline specifying the activities to be performed in order to monitor patients treated with blood thinners.

Towards a Formal Context-Aware Workflow Model for Ambient Environment

The Impact of Digital Technologies on Public Health in Developed and Developing Countries, 2020

Ambient systems owns some particular characteristics that makes their context awareness a sincere problem; they are composed of heterogeneous distributed devices, some of these devices may appear and disappear during operations. In addition, users interacting in these systems are themselves dynamic. Therefore, context-aware workflow management allows workflows to adapt dynamically according to the environment changes. Context information are complex and diverse which makes the modeling the key issue. This paper presents an approach to model context-aware workflows. First, we describe the workflow using Ag-LOTOS. Then, based on this description, we build the contextual planning system CPSw that allows the presentation of the context at each activity state.

Support of smart work processes in context rich environments

2005

The evolution of mobile and ubiquitous technologies gives promises for computational services and resources to support and influence work processes planned or performed in physical work environments. Such support should optimally provide the workers with a safer work environment for both the environment itself and the workers. The extended support can give more economic and optimal work processes through proactive and situated planning and execution. We introduce the concept of a smart work process to capture adaptive and context-aware process support. This combination of ubiquitous computing and workflow defines a new research direction to be investigated. This paper elaborates on research challenges related to how smart work processes can be supported. We present and discuss general cases where context information or change in context information influences mobile work activities. Finally, we propose a framework for modelling smart work processes, and present a high-level architecture to support smart work processes. very diverse, from simple sensors sampling environmental properties, to complete information systems with the ability to roam e.g. the Internet for information and services. Mobility imposes a dynamic and unstable environment that challenges how to create mobile work support environments. New opportunities to be utilised by the mobile workforce include management of ad hoc activities and cooperation with other people, as well as exchange of information and services with the surrounding environment.

A Plan-Based Service Composition for Work Process Agent in Ubiquitous Computing

2011 IEEE Asia-Pacific Services …, 2011

In this paper, we discuss a Work Process Agent (WPA) that enables users to access a range of services for achieving their tasks with service composition based on planning in ubiquitous computing environment. WPA is a smart assistant application specializing in information service which needs to provide each user's own user model and make the model be adapted to the user's preferences dynamically. With WPA, users can achieve their task in a simple way. WPA employs a special BDI-based coordinator agent with planning for coordinating the individual WPA and external services. The plan-based service composition model works at abstraction level of process. This model makes it possible to reuse the frames of plans by making it independent from domain.

Context Aware Service Discovery and Service Enabled Workflow

We provide a conceptual model for context aware Semantic Web Service (SWS) discovery, which can utilize realtime legacy data from external systems and support user contextbased service discovery and selection. This model offers advantages over current SWS technology which cannot be easily applied to different domains or be integrated with legacy systems. Using this conceptualization we propose an intelligent decision support system, which offers Service Enabled Workflow.

CAPEUS: An Architecture for Context-Aware Selection and Execution of Services

2001

This paper introduces a comprehensive framework that allows mobile users to access a variety of services provided by their current environment (e.g. print services). Novel to our approach is that selection and execution of services takes into account the user’s current context. Instead of being harassed by useless activities as service browsing or configuration issues, environmental services get seamlessly aligned to the user’s present task. Thus, the challenge is to develop a new service framework that fulfils these demands. The paper proposes a document-based approach; so called Context-Aware Packets (CAPs) contain context constraints and data for describing an entire service request. The core framework, Context-Aware Packets Enabling Ubiquitous Services (CAPEUS), reverts to CAPs for realising context-aware selection and execution of services.