Rigorous engineering of collective adaptive systems: special section

Abstract

An adaptive system is able to adapt at runtime to dynamically changing environments and to new requirements. Adaptive systems can be single adaptive entities or collective ones that consist of several collaborating entities. Rigorous engineering requires appropriate methods and tools that help guaranteeing that an adaptive system lives up to its intended purpose. This paper introduces the special section on “Rigorous Engineering of Collective Adaptive Systems.” It presents the seven contributions of the section and gives a short overview of the field of rigorously engineering collective adaptive systems by structuring it according to three topics: systematic development, methods and theories for modelling and analysis, and techniques for programming and operating collective adaptive systems.