Towards Simple and Effective Formal Methods for Intelligent Environments

In this paper we motivate and illustrate the use of bigraphs as a formal framework and methodology for the description, design and analysis of intelligent environment systems. Through a series of examples, we provide an overview of bigraphs, their composition, their evolution under reaction rules, and their refinement. We argue that bigraphs offer several advantages: first, they are intuitive and lie close to the topic of investigation, second, they are relatively simple to understand and deploy (in contrast to the systems they may analyse), third, they offer a means to tame complexity through multiple description at different levels of abstraction, fourth, and finally, the system itself can be usefully used without having to engage with its mathematical foundations.