Ad hoc and Sensor Network Software
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Agent Systems for Sensor Networks

Agilla is a middleware designed to enhance our ability to program applications for wireless sensor networks. It is the first mobile agent middleware that works in the resource-constrained environment of a sensor network. Mobile agents offer both code and state mobility. Because they can migrate across the sensor network, multiple applications can co-exist in the same sensor network, new applications can to be injected, and existing applications can adapt. Agilla's underlying context discovery and coordination primitives consist of a neighbor list and a tuple space. They facilitate inter-agent communication while maintaining each agent's autonomy and providing a rich infrastructure for building sophisticated applications. Agilla has been implemented on Mica2, MicaZ, and Tyndall 25mm sensors and has been integrated with the Cricket indoor localization system. Agilla's implementation consumes a mere 41.6KB of code and 3.59KB of data memory. Mobile agents can migrate 5 hops in less than 1.1s with over 92% reliability. Agilla was evaluated on multiple test applications related to fire detection and tracking, cargo container monitoring, robot navigation, intruder detection and tracking, and network exploration. Most importantly, Agilla introduced a promising new programming paradigm to the field of sensor networks facilitating an unprecedented degree of programming flexibility.