The descriptor of actuators is defined solely by the type and model of the device that is controlled. This area is not well covered by any existing ontology and the broad scope of potential devices that could act as actuators in the network means that developing an ontology would best be achieved through a long-term multi-partner effort. In order to both maintain standard behaviour within the OSDL Descriptor Environment and allow for further adoption of a well-recognized ontology when this becomes available we use URLs to define the type of device being controlled (using DBpedia) and the model of device used (from the manufacturer’s website).
| name | Human readable name of the controlled device |
| deviceType | URL to category of device from DBpedia |
| deviceModel | URL to device page on manufacturer website |
| target | URL to either variable affected (e.g. temperature) or the result of the action (e.g. a photograph) |