Goal-Oriented Holonics for Complex System (Self-)Integration: Concepts and Case Studies

System integration from sub-systems has always been a major engineering problem, which is progressively exacerbated by (1) sub-systems becoming more diverse, self-* and autonomous (2) systems operating in open environments, with third-party sub-systems joining and leaving unpredictably, (3) system (self-)integration being an ongoing process, increasingly needed at runtime. The fact that this problem occurs more and more often, as systems are built increasingly by composing existing sub-systems, requires rigorous, reusable integration solutions to replace ad-hoc approaches. In a complex world of uncertainty and change the new system integration paradigm must feature two main characteristics: support for a system-of-systems approach to manage complexity, and support for a high-level relation between sub-systems to manage diversity, uncertainty and dynamics. We propose a conceptual modelling solution combining holonic principles with goal-based relations. We highlight the key properties of holonic designs that support a systems-of-systems approach. We then specify the high-level relations between holonic sub-systems as goal-oriented requests and replies. Argumentation is grounded via concrete examples from existing complex systems. The proposed paradigm paves the way for future methodologies and tools for designing the next generation of socio-technical and cyber-physical systems.

[1]  Andrew P. Sage,et al.  On the Systems Engineering and Management of Systems of Systems and Federations of Systems , 2001, Inf. Knowl. Syst. Manag..

[2]  Robert W. Brennan,et al.  The holonic enterprise: a model for Internet‐enabled global manufacturing supply chain and workflow management , 2002 .

[3]  Yérom-David Bromberg,et al.  Holons: towards a systematic approach to composing systems of systems , 2015, ARM@Middleware.

[4]  Sylvain Frey,et al.  Architectural Integration Patterns for Autonomic Management Systems , 2012 .

[5]  G. J. O. Akkerhuis The operator hierarchy : a chain of closures linking matter, life and artificial intelligence , 2010 .

[6]  J. K. Kok,et al.  PowerMatcher: multiagent control in the electricity infrastructure , 2005, AAMAS '05.

[7]  Yao-Hua Tan,et al.  An Agent Based Inter-organizational Collaboration Framework: OperA+ , 2011, Web Intelligence/IAT Workshops.

[8]  Jörg H. Siekmann,et al.  Holonic Multiagent Systems: A Foundation for the Organisation of Multiagent Systems , 2003, HoloMAS.

[9]  Ada Diaconescu,et al.  Holonic Institutions for Multi-scale Polycentric Self-governance , 2014, COIN@AAMAS/PRICAI.

[10]  Eric Yu,et al.  Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering: An Introduction , 2011, Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering.

[11]  Stéphane Galland,et al.  An Analysis and Design Concept for Self-organization in Holonic Multi-agent Systems , 2006, ESOA.

[12]  Ada Diaconescu,et al.  Controlling Self-Organising Software Applications with Archetypes , 2012, 2012 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems.

[13]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[14]  Klaus Fischer,et al.  Holonic Multiagent Systems - Theory and Applications , 1999, EPIA.

[15]  A. Diaconescu,et al.  A Generic Holonic Control Architecture for Heterogeneous Multiscale and Multiobjective Smart Microgrids , 2015, ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst..

[16]  Stéphane Galland,et al.  An organisational approach to engineer emergence within holarchies , 2010, Int. J. Agent Oriented Softw. Eng..

[17]  Jörg Hähner,et al.  Trust Communities: An Open, Self-Organised Social Infrastructure of Autonomous Agents , 2016, Trustworthy Open Self-Organising Systems.

[18]  Adrian A. Hopgood,et al.  DARBS: A Distributed Blackboard System , 2001 .

[19]  A Koestler,et al.  Ghost in the Machine , 1970 .

[20]  P. Cochat,et al.  Et al , 2008, Archives de pediatrie : organe officiel de la Societe francaise de pediatrie.

[21]  HERBERT A. SIMON,et al.  The Architecture of Complexity , 1991 .

[22]  Oliver Kramer,et al.  Hierarchically Structured Energy Markets as Novel Smart Grid Control Approach , 2011, KI.

[23]  Mahdi Derakhshanmanesh,et al.  Achieving dynamic adaptation via management and interpretation of runtime models , 2012, J. Syst. Softw..

[24]  Christopher Landauer,et al.  New architectures for constructed complex systems , 2001, Appl. Math. Comput..

[25]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Towards Self-Aware and Self-Composing Services , 2015 .

[26]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  On Self-Adaptation, Self-Expression, and Self-Awareness in Autonomic Service Component Ensembles , 2011, 2011 Fifth IEEE Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops.

[27]  Wolfgang Reif,et al.  Synthesis and Abstraction of Constraint Models for Hierarchical Resource Allocation Problems , 2014, ICAART.

[28]  Anand S. Rao,et al.  Modeling Rational Agents within a BDI-Architecture , 1997, KR.

[29]  Ada Diaconescu,et al.  Towards a Service-Oriented Component Model for Autonomic Management , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing.

[30]  Christian Müller-Schloer,et al.  Incremental design of adaptive systems , 2014, J. Ambient Intell. Smart Environ..

[31]  Tom Holvoet,et al.  Fundamentals of Holonic Systems and Their Implications for Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems , 2008, 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops.