Abstract
Distributed autonomous systems consisting of large numbers of components with no central control point need to be able to dynamically adapt their control mechanisms to deal with an unpredictable and changing environment. Existing frameworks for engineering self-adaptive systems fail to account for the need to incorporate self-expression—that is, the capability of a system to dynamically adapt its coordination pattern during runtime. Although the benefits of incorporating self-expression are well known, currently there is no principled means of enabling this during system design. We propose a conceptual framework for principled design of systems that exhibit self-expression, based on inspiration from the natural immune system. The framework is described as a set of design principles and customizable algorithms and then is instantiated in three case studies, including two from robotics and one from artificial chemistry. We show that it enables self-expression in each case, resulting in systems that are able to adapt their choice of coordination pattern during runtime to optimize functional and nonfunctional goals, as well as to discover novel patterns and architectures.
Highlights
Systems consisting of ensembles of software components are ubiquitous
We show that using the framework, it is possible to build systems that are capable of selecting an optimal coordination pattern or organisational architecture during run-time, in environments that are task-driven and may have non-functional requirements
Two options are apparent: (i) assign the same set of antibodies to every lymph-node or (ii) create lymph-nodes with unique repertoires. The latter approach is common in fields such as evolutionary algorithms in order to aid exploration of the search space, we propose that this is not alway necessary in this model: in typical distributed applications, components of large ensembles that share identical repertoires are likely to be subject to widely differing experiences, causing differentiation within the repertoires and the necessary diversity required for exploration
Summary
Systems consisting of ensembles of software components (e.g. devices, robots, sensors) are ubiquitous. In order to achieve collective and/or individual goals in such environments, the ensemble must be able to restructure its topology or control regime during run-time as appropriate This ability to enable runtime selection of architectural and coordination patterns in response to environmental changes was coined self-expression by [Zambonelli et al 2011]. It proposes that ensembles should be able to deploy just-in-time reconfiguration of topologies in terms of interactions, roles and behaviours of the components when required.
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