This document discusses using RESTdesc to enable automated composition of sensor web APIs. RESTdesc can be used to describe the functionality of web APIs for sensors like temperature, location, and pressure sensors. These descriptions are modeled as rules that can be chained together using semantic web reasoning. The author has tested this approach and found that RESTdesc composition scales well, with chains of over 500 APIs completing in under 2 seconds. This allows for automated composition of sensor web APIs to answer complex queries.

1. Functional Composition
Ruben Verborgh et al. of Sensor Web APIs

2. ?
What
makes people
SMART

3. Collaboration.

4. ?
What
makes sensors
SMART

5. Collaboration.

6. Smart collaborations
run themselves.
manual sensor composition
intelligence comes from humans
automatic sensor composition
intelligence comes from the system

7. My research is about
intelligent Web APIs.
Ruben Verborgh, PhD Student
Ghent University / iMinds
My dream: intelligent agents
browsing the Web for us
Bridging between people and things
bringing things to the Web

8. Functional composition
of sensor Web APIs
{
Capturing functionality
Creating compositions
Evaluating feasibility

9. Functional composition
of sensor Web APIs
{
Capturing functionality
Creating compositions
Evaluating feasibility

10. Why describe functionality?

11. Only functionality
tells the whole story.

12. How to capture the functionality
of these sensors?
GPS device
determines current location
temperature sensor
reads current temperature
pressure sensor
reads current air pressure

13. We model sensors
as Web APIs.
Web APIs = HTTP APIs = REST APIs
as opposed to “Big” Web services
resource-oriented
Sensor measurements are resources
location
temperature
air pressure

14. We capture the functionality
of Web APIs with RESTdesc.
RESTdesc describes the functionality
of hypermedia-driven APIs
with Notation3 (an RDF superset).

15. RESTdesc can describe
a temperature sensor.
!
""#$%&$'(")"%*+,%-.%()/0(%1%&$'(2
""""""""""%*+3'4)/5'&"#3'4)/5'&6
7
89
!
"":+(%;0%$/"<//.+-%/<'=>)-%"?@A,?2
""""""""""""<//.+(%;0%$/BCD"#$%&$'(2
""""""""""""<//.+(%$."E"<//.+F'=G"#/%-.%()/0(%"H6
""
""#3'4)/5'&"%*+<)$,%-.%()/0(%"#/%-.%()/0(%6
76

16. RESTdesc can describe
a temperature sensor.
!
""#$%&$'(")"%*+,%-.%()/0(%1%&$'(2
""""""""""%*+3'4)/5'&"#3'4)/5'&6
7
89
!
"":+(%;0%$/"<//.+-%/<'=>)-%"?@A,?2
""""""""""""<//.+(%;0%$/BCD"#$%&$'(2
""""""""""""<//.+(%$."E"<//.+F'=G"#/%-.%()/0(%"H6
""
""#3'4)/5'&"%*+<)$,%-.%()/0(%"#/%-.%()/0(%6
76

17. RESTdesc can describe
a temperature sensor.
!
""#$%&$'(")"%*+,%-.%()/0(%1%&$'(2
""""""""""%*+3'4)/5'&"#3'4)/5'&6
7
89
!
""8+(%90%$/"://.+-%/:';<)-%"=>?,=2
""""""""""""://.+(%90%$/@AB"#$%&$'(2
""""""""""""://.+(%$."C"://.+D';E"#/%-.%()/0(%"F6
""
""#3'4)/5'&"%*+<)$,%-.%()/0(%"#/%-.%()/0(%6
76

18. RESTdesc can describe
a temperature sensor.
!
""#$%&$'(")"%*+,%-.%()/0(%1%&$'(2
""""""""""%*+3'4)/5'&"#3'4)/5'&6
7
89
!
"":+(%;0%$/"<//.+-%/<'=>)-%"?@A,?2
""""""""""""<//.+(%;0%$/BCD"#$%&$'(2
""""""""""""<//.+(%$."E"<//.+F'=G"#/%-.%()/0(%"H6
""
""#3'4)/5'&"%*+:)$,%-.%()/0(%"#/%-.%()/0(%6
76

19. RESTdesc provides simple
functional descriptions.
Hypermedia-driven
no inputs or outputs, just links
Capture functionality
relationship between resources
Rule-based
logic implication

20. Functional composition
of sensor Web APIs
{
Capturing functionality
Creating compositions
Evaluating feasibility

21. Why compose Web APIs?
To answer a query
by combining multiple APIs.
Queries can be complex,
APIs not necessarily known in advance.

22. “Reserve a table in a nearby restaurant.
If weather allows, I want to sit outside.”

23. What APIs do we have
at our disposition?
Suppose we have many APIs, including:
Location API
Temperature API
Pressure API
Restaurant API

24. What would
a candidate solution lookoflike? Web a
Functional Composition Sensor
T
I L R G
P
“Reserve a table in Location API
bining the Location, Temperature, Pressure, and Restauran
a nearby restaurant. Temperature API
dependencies, we can reach the Goal from the Initial state
If weather allows, Pressure API
I want to sit outside.” Restaurant API

25. RESTdesc descriptions enable
automated composition.
RESTdesc descriptions are rules
Rules support inference
Rules can be chained

26. Does this composition
satisfy the goal?
{ } Since descriptions are rules,
=>
{ } success is defined as entailment.

27. If success is entailment,
the proof is the composition.
{ }
=> The proof of the entailment
{ }
{ } contains the used rules,
=>
{ } thus the needed API requests.

28. A semantic Web reasoner
can create the composition.
Functional Composition of Sensor Web a
{ }
=>
{ }
{ } { }
=> =>
{ } T { }
I L R G
P
“Reserve a table in {
=>
} Location API
biningnearby restaurant. { } Temperature API
a the Location, Temperature, Pressure, and Restauran
Pressure API
dependencies, we can reach the Goal from the Initial state
If weather allows,
I want to sit outside.” Restaurant API

29. RESTdesc composing behaves
as a good Semantic Web citizen.
works with generic semantic reasoners
RESTdesc descriptions are rules
no specific knowledge needed
ontologies fill gaps
domain-independent

30. Functional composition
of sensor Web APIs
{
Capturing functionality
Creating compositions
Evaluating feasibility

31. Does it scale?

32. Reasoner-based methods
are often thought of as slow.
partly perception
limit reasoner experience
partly the method
translation into reasoner domain

33. We tested composition chains
for performance.
n APIs with 1/2/3 dependencies
to test chaining speed
32 APIs in presence of n dummies
to test discrimination speed

34. RESTdesc composition is so fast
that it works on Web scale.
chain of 512 APIs with 1 dependency
in 0.4 seconds
chain of 512 APIs with 3 dependencies
in 1.6 seconds
chain of 32 APIs with 512 dummies
in 0,01 seconds

35. Efficient implementations
on Arduino boards.
simple sensors as Web APIs
described with RESTdesc
central composer

36. RESTdesc is an automated solution
for sensor Web API composition.
Describe REST Web APIs
Use Semantic Web logic
Compose with generic reasoners

37. RESTdesc automatically
composes sensor Web APIs.
Curious? Let’s get in touch!
Visit restdesc.org and
connect to @RubenVerborgh on Twitter.