Conceptual Map and Classification in Ensembles of Autonomic Components: from Awareness to Organization

Designing cooperative autonomic components andstudying their possible interactions when operating in ensemblein open and non-deterministic environments, poses severalchallenges for the developer. While older studies focus on theseveral possibilities for optimized collaboration protocols andcommunication possibilities in distributed architectures, themost recent trend is more focussing on the self-expression andself-organizing features that aware components may deployduring run-time, thus exploring new frontiers in designingadaptive collaboration patterns. In this paper we propose aconceptual map for autonomic components (taking into accountthe distributed robotics scenario) able to classify old andnew approaches in collaboration, highlighting similarities andcommonalities between patterns and by focussing on the laststudies about awareness of autonomous components. Being apreliminary study, the further goal is represented by findinga design approach for dynamically changing collaborationpatterns during a run-time execution of tasks.