Management of distributed knowledge encapsulated in embedded devices
本文提出一种方法，让每个嵌入式设备能自主管理其知识片段，并在设备层面保持控制权，使其能根据全局状态做出决策，适用于工业自动化等场景。
Embedded electronic devices are now to be found everywhere. In general, they can be used to collect different sorts of data (e.g. on temperature, humidity, illumination and locations). In some specific domains, such as industrial automation, embedded devices are used for process control. The devices may have a programme that can respond immediately to environmental changes perceived through sensors. In the control of large sites, where there are many devices, higher level decisions are made or processed in dedicated computers far away from the sources (devices) where the initial data are collected. This article shows how it is possible to manage portions of distributed knowledge, hosted in embedded devices, making it possible for each embedded device to hold and manage its piece of knowledge. In addition, presented approach allows keeping locus of control at the embedded device level, where the embedded device can make decisions knowing the status of the rest of the world, device contributions and their effects in the overall distributed system knowledge base.