Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude

Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with obstacle-avoidance self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVesta

Building self-adaptive systems by adaptation patterns integrated into agent methodologies

Adopting patterns, i.e. reusable solutions to generic problems, turns out to be useful to rely on tested solutions and to avoid reinventing the wheel. To this aim, we proposed to use adaptation patterns to build systems that exhibit self-adaptive features. However, these patterns would be more usable if integrated in a methodology exploited to develop a system. In this paper we show how our Catalogue of adaptation patterns can be integrated into methodologies for adaptive systems; more in detail, we consider methodologies which support the development of multi-agent systems that can be considered good examples of adaptive systems. The paper, in particular, shows the integration of our Catalogue of adaptive patterns into the PASSI methodology, together with the graphical tool that we developed to support it

Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude

Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify, validate and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVeStA

Methodological Guidelines for Engineering Self-organization and Emergence

The ASCENS project deals with the design and development of complex self-adaptive systems, where self-organization is one of the possible means by which to achieve self-adaptation. However, to support the development of self-organising systems, one has to extensively re-situate their engineering from a software architectures and requirements point of view. In particular, in this chapter, we highlight the importance of the decomposition in components to go from the problem to the engineered solution. This leads us to explain and rationalise the following architectural strategy: designing by following the problem organisation. We discuss architectural advantages for development and documentation, and its coherence with existing methodological approaches to self-organisation, and we illustrate the approach with an example on the area of swarm robotics

Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude

Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify, validate and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVeStA

Parametric Protocol-Driven Agents and their Integration in JADE

Abstract. In this paper we introduce "Template Global Types" which extend Constrained Global Types to support a more generic and modular approach to define protocols, meant as patterns of events of a given type. Protocols can be used both for monitoring the behavior of distributed computational entities and for driving it. In this paper we show the potential of Template Global Types in the domain of protocol-driven intelligent software agents. The interpreter for "executing" Template Global Types has a very natural implementation in Prolog which can easily implement the transition rules for moving from one state to another one, given that an event has been perceived (in case of monitoring) or generated for execution (in case of protocol-driven behavior). This interpreter has been integrated into the Jason logic-based agent framework with limited effort, thanks to the native support that Jason offers to Prolog. In order to demonstrate the flexibility and portability of our approach, which goes beyond the boundaries of logic-based frameworks, in this paper we discuss the integration of the protocol-driven interpreter into the JADE agent framework, entirely implemented in Java

On the Dynamic Evolution of Distributed Computational Aggregates

Engineering and programming approaches for collective adaptive systems often leverage ensemble-like abstractions to characterise a subset of devices as a domain for a given task or computation. In this paper, we address the problem of programming the dynamic evolution of distributed computational aggregates, through neighbour-based coordination. This is a problem of interest, since several situated activities (especially in large-scale settings) require decentralised collaboration, and need to be sustained by limited subsets of devices. These subsets may vary dynamically due to delegation, completion of local contributions, exhaustion of resources, failure, or change in the device set induced by the openness of system boundaries. In order to study and develop how distributed aggregates progressively take form by local coordination, we build on the field-based framework of aggregate processes, and extend it with techniques to support more expressive evolution dynamics. We propose novel algorithms for more effective propagation and closure of the boundaries of dynamic aggregates, based on statistics on the information speed and a notion of progressive closure through wave-like propagation. We verify the proposed techniques by simulation of a paradigmatic case study of multihop message delivery in mobile settings, and show increased performance and success rate with respect to previous work

Collective Adaptive Systems: Qualitative and Quantitative Modelling and Analysis (Dagstuhl Seminar 14512)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 14512 "Collective Adaptive Systems: Qualitative and Quantitative Modelling and Analysis". Besides presentations on current work in the area, the seminar focused on the following topics: (i) Modelling techniques and languages for collective adaptive systems based on the above formalisms. (ii) Verification of collective adaptive systems. (iii) Humans-in-the-loop in collective adaptive systems