Sensor Web Position Paper
Robert Morris · 2005
We, along with ESTO [1], view a sensor web as potentially one part of a cognitive web, a collection of resources for understanding Earth processes that as a whole is able to display adaptive, goal-directed behavior. In our view, a cognitive web includes, in addition to a collection of observing systems, the set of data repositories and tools used to generate data products, as well as a collection of models that provide the goals of observation. To be a cognitive web, a representation of current observation goals and the tasks being performing to accomplish these goals is required. There must be a means to recognize when changes to the sensing environment threaten to thwart the accomplishment of those goals. A cognitive web must be self-adapting to changes in its own configuration, e.g., by adding or removing nodes. It must be able to recognize opportunities for modifying its data acquisition plans in order to improve overall performance. It must act as a coordinator of resources, an optimizer of tasks, and a broker for data products [2]. Whether the overall web goal is, for example, to characterize the physical and chemical properties of a storm water runoff plume or to characterize the microclimates associated