DAISy aims to design distributed intelligent hardware / software systems, which are seamlessly integrated into objects and their environment, and thus are intuitive to use. These systems are in principle composed of heterogeneous and resource-constrained artefacts, which operate over unstable wireless networks. Artefacts are objects or appliances, which have been augmented with (or have access to) sensing, computing and communication abilities. DAISy conducts research on the disciplines related to its mission, designs and develops artefacts and implements ambient intelligence systems. It applies a combination of component-based software engineering, knowledge representation, real-time systems design and design for acceptability techniques to meet the specific requirements of these systems, which arise mainly from the usually small size of the artefacts, the soft real-time performance requirements, and the need to avoid upsetting the task models of people.