Goal Controller Synthesis for Self-Adaptive Systems

Abstract

Much like humans, a growing number of softwarecontrolled systems must cope with uncertainty and disruption through self-adaptation. However, while humans achieve this feat by changing both the means through which they pursue their goals and-when unavoidable-the goals themselves, self-adaptive systems are often only using the former adaptation mechanism. In this 'research ideas' paper, we argue that exploiting the latter mechanism is equally important, and we propose a new goal modelling paradigm that supports reasoning about goal change, and the use of probabilistic model checking tools to synthesise goal-management control software for self-adaptive systems.