Logic Programming as a Service in Multi-Agent Systems for the Internet of Things

The widespread diffusion of low-cost computing devices, along with improvements of cloud computing platforms, are paving the way towards a whole new set of opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services. Varying degrees of intelligence are required for supporting adaptation and self-management: yet, they should be provided in a light-weight, easy to use and customise, highly-interoperable way. In this paper we explore Logic Programming as a Service (LPaaS) as a novel and promising re-interpretation of distributed logic programming in the IoT era. After introducing the reference context and motivating scenarios of LPaaS as an effective enabling technology for intelligent IoT, we define the LPaaS general architecture, and discuss two different prototype implementations—as a web service and as an agent in a multi-agent system (MAS), both built on top of the tuProlog system, which provides the required interoperability and customisation. We finally showcase the LPaaS potential through two case studies, designed as a simplification of the motivating scenarios.