The high-level arhitecture of GUIDed
The GUIDed system is composed of the backend platform and the Android mobile application. The backend platform provides the implementation of the key modules that deliver the main functionality of the system services, as these are illustrated in the figure. The modules are explained in the figure below and are analysed in detail in the deliverable D3.1 Report on web platform specification and architecture.
The backend platform was developed using the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) stack and was delivered as a Drupal-based hybrid CMS (Content Management System), which was deployed on the public cloud (i.e., DigitalOcean).
The hybrid CMS provides the administrator web system, the Drupal-based Web APIs and the push notifications. A push notification in this case refers to a remote notification “pushed” from the server to the user even when the application is not running.
Primarily, the administrator web system offers the capability to administrators and secondary users to enter and manage the information via the CMS, which will be stored in an MySQL database. The Web APIs and the push notifications provide the capability to interact with the Android AR/VR mobile application using HTTP requests and event-driven push notifications that are initiated from the server.
Furthermore, two of the system modules (M1, M2) are supported at the home through the re-use of the AsTeRICS framework and the implementation of the necessary plugins that allow controlling and interacting with smart home devices. The communication with these devices is provided via the smart hub that will be configured in this project based on the Raspberry Pi 3 micro-controller board.
Finally, both the Drupal backend platform and the AsTeRICS framework (deployed at the home on the smart hub) are based on an extensible and plug-in based plug-and-play architecture. Therefore, although in this project, the five services and the necessary plugins have been implemented, the GUIDed system architecture is defined and designed to allow the extension and evolution of the system beyond the project lifetime. This will allow the GUIDEd product to adapt and evolve in the future to offer additional AR/VR based services and support additional smart home devices.