۱- Introduction

۲- Background

۳- Weaving cognition into things

۴- Implementation

۵- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in the Internet-of-Things, many organizations remain reluctant to integrating things into their business processes. Different reasons justify this reluctance including things’ limited capabilities to act upon the cyber-physical surrounding in which they operate. To address this specific limitation, this paper examines thing empowerment with cognitive capabilities that would make them for instance, selective of the next business processes in which they would participate. The selection is based on things’ restrictions like limitedness and goals to achieve like improved reputation. For demonstration purposes, water leaks are used as a case study. A BPEL-based business process driving the fixing of water leaks is implemented involving different cognitive things like moisture sensor.

Introduction

In a 2015 IBM white-paper (Green, 2015), Green states that the Internet-of-Things (IoT) needs to be smarter so, that, existing things would go beyond the regular activities of sensing and sometimes actuating. This smartness could become effective thanks to cognitive computing. In a similar statement, Wu et al. argue that ‘‘without comprehensive cognitive capability, IoT is just like an awkward stegosaurus: all brawn and no brains” (Wu et al., 2014). Brain-empowered IoT or Cognitive IoT (CIoT) are the terms that Wu et al. use to describe the future (if not, the present) generation of things. In line with the cognitive trend, a 2017 analog devices white-paper also states that ‘‘The Internet of Things Depends on the Intelligence of Things”. ۱ Capitalizing on the IoT’s tremendous potential by for instance, offering better services that would connect things together (Ugljanin, Maamar, Sellami, & Faci, 2016), organizations also rely on Business Processes (BP) to achieve their missions and reach their goals. BPs are at the center of all initiatives that organizations undertake.