Software Engineering for Collective Cyber-Physical Ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper explores the emerging paradigm of collective computing in cyber-physical ecosystems, emphasizing self-organization, collaboration, and new software engineering challenges for large-scale, distributed systems.

Contribution

It introduces the collective computing paradigm, discusses its motivations, challenges, and outlines future research directions in software engineering for such systems.

Findings

Highlights the shift from composite to collective system perspectives

Identifies key challenges like macroprogramming and self-adaptive middleware

Proposes future research paths in collective intelligence and learning

Abstract

Today's distributed and pervasive computing addresses large-scale cyber-physical ecosystems, characterised by dense and large networks of devices capable of computation, communication and interaction with the environment and people. While most research focusses on treating these systems as "composites" (i.e., heterogeneous functional complexes), recent developments in fields such as self-organising systems and swarm robotics have opened up a complementary perspective: treating systems as "collectives" (i.e., uniform, collaborative, and self-organising groups of entities). This article explores the motivations, state of the art, and implications of this "collective computing paradigm" in software engineering, discusses its peculiar challenges, and outlines a path for future research, touching on aspects such as macroprogramming, collective intelligence, self-adaptive middleware, learning, synthesis, and experimentation of collective behaviour.