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Every task completion, event and milestone, from the kick-off in November 2023 to the closing in February 2026. Each item carries its project month, so it can be read against the Gantt chart.

2026

  1. M27

    Project closed

    ASSISTANTS concludes

    ASSISTANTS concluded on February 28, 2026, at the end of a three-month extension. All four work packages are closed, the nine deliverables from D1.1 to D3.3 have been delivered and the three milestones have been reached.

    The only material change from the original 24-month plan was a delay of about three months in contracting the home-automation integrator, which shifted the pilot activities in WP3. The extension to M27 absorbed it without changing objectives, scientific scope or budget.

    The activities planned for T4.3, outreach to open-source communities and industry practitioners, were carried out through the website, the code repositories, videos and demonstrators, and the collaboration with Smartotum.

    The natural next steps are deployment in real homes, a user study with data subjects, data controllers and data protection officers, a longitudinal evaluation, and support for more home-automation platforms. The full record is on the project page.

    • WP1–WP4
    • D1.1–D3.3
    • MS1–MS3
  2. M27

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T4.2

    Task T4.2, Dissemination Toward the Scientific Community, was completed on February 28, 2026, together with the project.

    The consortium presented its results at ARES 2024, ARES 2025 and SAC 2025 and in Future Generation Computer Systems. ASSISTANTS sponsored the BASS workshop co-located with ARES 2024, was presented at the Apulia Cybersecurity Forum 2024 and was promoted at the XXIV International School on Foundations of Security Analysis and Design. Preprints and demonstrators were released following Open Access principles.

    The complete list is on the publications page.

    • T4.2
    • WP4
  3. M27

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T4.1

    Task T4.1, Website and Social Media Profiles Management, was completed on February 28, 2026.

    For 27 months the website and the social profiles reported milestones, software releases, publications and events, linked the public artefacts of the project and gave licence and citation information for the open-source repositories. This site is the final form of that work: it keeps the project record, the news and the publications online after the end of the project.

    • T4.1
    • WP4
  4. M27

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T3.3

    Task T3.3 was completed on February 28, 2026, with the delivery of D3.3, Pilot Evaluation, and the achievement of Milestone 3. The acceptance tests were run on the pilot integrated in the Smartotum home-automation platform, checking sustainability, policy compliance and security.

    For the smart camera, four access scenarios were verified:

    • local access over the ISP network, where the Smartotum gateway enforces VLAN isolation;
    • remote access, where streaming is reachable only through the Smartotum VPN and privacy rules apply to remote users too;
    • access from applications running inside the gateway, where containerised services respect the active rules;
    • direct access from the gateway’s local network, where firewall rules set by the privacy manager block the camera during the time windows defined by the policy.

    The smart light refused commands during the forbidden time window and went back to normal operation automatically when the rule expired. The policy dashboard was tested on XACML policies generated from natural language and voice: the generated policies were compared for equivalence with policies written by experts, and checked against typos, missing words and ambiguous or incorrect phrasing.

2025

  1. M22

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T3.2

    Task T3.2 was completed on September 30, 2025, with the delivery of D3.2, Pilot Implementation. The deliverable was planned for M24 and was ready at M22.

    Smartotum joined the project in July 2025, and the ASSISTANTS components were integrated into its home-automation platform. The platform’s Distributed Hash Table is the meeting point for the house configuration, rooms and devices, capabilities, privacy rules, telemetry, commands and state.

    Two new components came out of the integration:

    • a smart light demonstrator on an ESP32-C3 microcontroller with Rust firmware, with manual, motion-sensor and photosensor modes;
    • a privacy manager written in Python and deployed as a Docker container on the Smartotum gateway. It intercepts the commands coming from the user interface, checks them against the active privacy rules and blocks the ones that are not allowed. It talks to the device controller through the DHT and starts automatically when the gateway boots.
  2. M18

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T3.1

    Task T3.1 was completed on May 31, 2025, with the delivery of D3.1, Pilot Requirements and Use Cases.

    The task collected the functional and non-functional requirements of the smart camera pilot: software architecture, data analysis, performance and response times, reconfiguration after a change in the GDPR policies, energy consumption, security and data minimisation. It also fixed the measurement points used later in the experimental evaluation.

    Contracting the home-automation integrator took longer than planned, so the elicitation was extended by two months and the feedback expected from the integrator was gathered internally. The first baselines and datasets for the evaluation in T3.3 were collected in the same period.

  3. M16

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T2.3

    Task T2.3 was completed on March 31, 2025, marking the delivery of the Data Privacy Dashboard.

    This web platform allows users to define their privacy preferences using natural language, which are then automatically translated into enforceable access control policies. It also includes automatic license checks and visual feedback on device compliance. With this tool, users gain tangible control over how their data is handled across the Smart Home ecosystem.

  4. M16

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T2.2

    We are excited to report that Task T2.2 has been successfully completed on March 31, 2025. The task focused on enabling dynamic access control for data usage within the Smart Home environment.

    To meet this goal, the team integrated a Usage Control framework based on XACML with cryptographic data envelopes. This ensures that access rights are enforceable, revocable, and remain active only as long as conditions are met, even when data resides in external or untrusted environments.

2024

  1. M12

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T1.3

    We have successfully concluded Task T1.3 on November 30, 2024. The goal was to implement tools for evaluating software sustainability and security from a code analysis perspective.

    Focusing on metrics like code clarity, coverage, and sanitization, the work emphasized the use of the Rust programming language due to its strong safety features. The resulting tools can now validate sustainability labels through automated CI/CD workflows, contributing directly to the platform’s reliability.

  2. M10

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T2.1

    Task T2.1 reached completion on September 30, 2024. The focus of this task was to develop a graphical dashboard for managing Smart Home data privacy.

    The result is an intuitive interface that allows legal experts to define data usage policies and enables end-users to customize those rules according to their preferences. This dashboard represents a critical interface between technical enforcement and user empowerment.

  3. M8

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T1.2

    Task T1.2 was officially completed on July 31, 2024. This task focused on designing methods to evaluate software compliance with privacy and security policies.

    Through the use of contract-based models and formal logic representations, the team created tools that can verify whether software behavior aligns with access control and privacy rules. These techniques lay the groundwork for policy-aware development in Smart Home environments and enable secure-by-design solutions.

  4. M8–M9

    Keynote

    Luca Ardito’s Keynote at the BASS Workshop

    Luca Ardito, assistant professor at Politecnico di Torino, delivered a keynote at the 4th International Workshop on Behavioral Authentication for System Security (BASS), in conjunction with the ARES Conference 2024 in Vienna, Austria.

    Luca Ardito presenting the ASSISTANTS project to the BASS workshop audience in Vienna
    BASS workshop, ARES 2024, Vienna.

    In his keynote titled “Behavioural Modelling for Sustainability in Smart Homes,” Luca explored the transformative potential of smart home technologies in driving sustainability. He discussed the integration of behavioral modelling, predictive analytics, and gamification to enhance user engagement and promote sustainable practices. The talk highlighted comprehensive sustainability metrics (environmental, economic, and social) and demonstrated how these technologies optimize energy efficiency, reduce carbon footprints, and improve the overall quality of life.

    Luca also addressed privacy concerns associated with these technologies, emphasizing robust data protection strategies, transparency, and user education to build trust and ensure ethical data use. The importance of regulatory frameworks like GDPR in safeguarding user privacy was also covered.

    The keynote showcased the future of smart homes at the intersection of technological advancements, policy development, market growth, and environmental impact, emphasizing their critical role in global sustainability efforts.

    For more details on the conference and the workshop, visit the ARES Conference website.

    • T4.2
    • ARES 2024
  5. M4

    Task completed

    Successful Completion of T1.1

    We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the first task in the ASSISTANTS project on March 31, 2024. The primary goal of this task was to identify the key metrics necessary for evaluating the project’s outcomes.

    The identified metrics include:

    • Environmental metrics
    • Economic metrics
    • Social metrics

    These metrics will play a crucial role in guiding our future efforts and ensuring that our solutions are effective and impactful.

2023

  1. M1

    Kick-off

    Project ASSISTANTS Kicks Off Activities

    The ASSISTANTS project officially started its activities on November 30, 2023. The project aims to enhance the sustainability, security, and privacy of Smart Home software by developing innovative solutions and methodologies.

    Our initial task focuses on identifying key metrics that will guide the project’s objectives and outcomes. These metrics are essential for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of our solutions in real-world applications.

    • WP1
    • WP4