Component interface design for flexible user-centric automation and assistive devices

User-centered assistive and automation devices (UCAAD) must be flexible (i.e., configurable, customizable and adaptive). We are concerned with the interface design so as to design and build flexible UCAAD in an effective manner. We design the component interfaces for UCAAD to describe the essential information for component integration during design time and run-time. We propose to make use of the workflow model to integrate hardware and software components into a complete embedded systems. A unified component interface is required for the workflow-based integration process. In particular, we are concerned with resource management for UCAAD systems. This paper presents our approaches, progress to date and future plans.