/*
* MicroJIAC - A Lightweight Agent Framework
* This file is part of MicroJIAC Base-Implementation.
*
* Copyright (c) 2007-2012 DAI-Labor, Technische Universität Berlin
*
* This library includes software developed at DAI-Labor, Technische
* Universität Berlin (http://www.dai-labor.de)
*
* This library is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
* by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with this library. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/
package de.jiac.micro.agent;
import de.jiac.micro.core.IHandle;
import de.jiac.micro.core.ILifecycleAware;
/**
* The {@code IActuator} interface describes an agent element that connects the
* agent to some kind of environment. Other elements can use routines via the
* handle of this actuator.
* <p>
* As different devices have different capabilities with respect to
* communication, actuators should be used to hide these details. Define a
* generic handler interface and other agent elements may remain unchanged if
* the agent is deployed to another device. Only the configuration has to be
* fitted to reflect the devices capabilities.
*
* @see IHandle
* @see ISensor
*
* @author Marcel Patzlaff
*/
public interface IActuator extends IAgentElement {
/**
* Returns the specific handle that exploits the capabilities of
* this actuator.
* <p>
* If this actuator also implements {@link ILifecycleAware} then this
* method is called <strong>after</strong> calling {@link ILifecycleAware#initialise()}.
*
* @return specific handle for this actuator
*/
IHandle getHandle();
}