Lantern: A domain specific language for energy awareness in smart-homes

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Robinson, Jon^{a; *} | Lee, Kevin^b | Appiah, Kofi^c

Affiliations: [a] School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. E-mail: jon.robinson@ntu.ac.uk | [b] School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. E-mail: kevin.lee@deakin.edu.au | [c] Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK. E-mail: kofi.appiah@york.ac.uk

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. E-mail: jon.robinson@ntu.ac.uk.

Abstract: This paper argues that energy consideration should be central to software development. It speculates that including the notion of energy awareness in programming language design for domain specific languages (DSLs) is a novel way in which energy-aware and energy-efficient applications can be developed. It outlines the design criteria and rationale for using a language-focused approach for energy-awareness. It proposes Lantern, a DSL for supporting energy awareness in Cyber-Physical Systems software development. Lantern allows the development of applications that better manage and reduce the carbon footprint of devices. The design of Lantern is aimed at supporting the general development of Cyber-Physical Systems. This paper focuses on the scenario of smart homes, using statically defined locations within a specified environment.

Keywords: Home automation, energy awareness, distributed systems

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-200580

Journal: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 531-546, 2020