A Language & an Approach for the Development of IoT Solutions

IoT can contribute to the resolution of problems inherent in the control of our environment and to the automation of decisions based on data extracted from that environment. However, the opportunity to contribute to these activities is not offered to everyone. Indeed, according to the majority of decision makers in different fields, IoT solution development is limited to only IoT experts in these fields. According to our opinion this truth is not absolute. In order to demystify IoT and trivialize participation in the IoT solution development effort a language specific to IoT domain has been defined. This language is based on a meta-model of IoT and is made of a textual notation conforming to Backus Naur Form. It allows each participant in a development activity to express and discuss his or her idea of a solution to an IoT problem. An approach build on this language proposes a demarche that starts from the IoT meta-model to arrive at a solution code. Each developer can derive the meta-model to obtain a solution model. Next, she (or he) uses our development environment to concretize this model. Our environment is build using Eclipse/Xtext. It offers technological tools to support our approach. The case study that provides a proof of concept of the approach falls within the domain of smart agriculture.