Applying Chatbots to the Internet of Things: Opportunities and Architectural Elements

Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a significant technology in shaping the future by connecting physical devices or things with the web. It also presents various opportunities for the intersection of other technological trends which can allow it to become even more intelligent and efficient. In this paper, we focus our attention on the integration of Intelligent Conversational Software Agents or Chatbots with IoT. Prior literature has covered various applications, features, underlying technologies and known challenges of IoT. On the other hand, Chatbots are a relatively new concept, being widely adopted due to significant progress in the development of platforms and frameworks. The novelty of this paper lies in the specific integration of Chatbots in the IoT scenario. We analyzed the shortcomings of existing IoT systems and put forward ways to tackle them by incorporating chatbots. A general architecture is proposed for implementing such a system, as well as platforms and frameworks – both commercial and open source – which allow for the implementation of such systems. Identification of the newer challenges and possible future research directions with this new integration have also been addressed.

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