On the Social Implications of Collective Adaptive Systems

Abstract

Many Collective Adaptive Systems (CASs) exist in nature: think of ant colonies, where large collectives of ants operate autonomously but interact with other ants and the environment to provide resilient global behaviours that sustain their colony. Following scientific studies that were aimed at understanding and predicting the evolution of these systems, and fueled by technological advances, research has started to investigate CAS engineering: the methods, tools, and techniques for building CASs. This naturally leads to a vision where collectives of humans and computational elements, situated both in the digital and physical worlds, collaborate to give rise to "intelligent" collective behaviour supporting novel kinds of applications and services. Humans can be involved in two ways: both as users and as components of the CAS, in the sense that human behaviours and limitations are often integral to the system description. This has significant social implications that need to be considered by CAS researchers: in this paper, we share a discussion that took place between some experts thinking about CAS engineering, focusing on the social implication of CASs and related open research challenges. We hope that this provides a useful context for future research projects, research grant proposals, and research directions.

A Programming Approach to Collective Autonomy

“…This is also plausible for collective autonomy, as applications involving (cyber-physical) collectives of (variously autonomous) actors seeking global goals emerge-cf. applications in smart city [80], swarm robotics [81], mobile social crowdsensing [82,83], and smart infrastructures contexts [51,84]. In particular, programmable approaches to collective autonomy could contribute to research and applications of computational collective intelligence [85], namely the field studying groups and their ability to implement effective decision-making, coordinated action, and cooperative problem-solving.…”

Work With What You've Got: An Approach for Resource-Driven Adaptation

“…The automated warehouse system is an example of CAS. This system is part of a broader logistics scenario involving product delivery among manufacturers, retailers, and customers [7]. Suppose the warehouse is part of a retail store that receives customer orders throughout the day.…”

“…For each task in G1, PA should be exclusively between 1 and 1.1. By (7), ε is equal to 0.02. By ( 6), the tasks in G1 have 1.02, 1.04, 1.06, and 1.08 as PA values, respectively.…”

“…Collective Adaptive Systems (CASs) are ensembles of collaborating entities that adapt their behaviour to accommodate changes in their environment [7]. One example of these changes is concerned with changes in the available resources.…”

Gamified and Self-Adaptive Applications for the Common Good: Research Challenges Ahead

“…We consider striving for the common good as a way to empower each individual, by taking advantage of potentials of collaborations while creating awareness of antagonistic interests. Some antagonistic interests may arrive to unwanted effects that may need to be removed at least up to a point [1], [5].…”