A method to make an existing system adaptive

Abstract

The Adaptive systems are becoming essential into our daily life, thanks to the fast improvement of computing technology and the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Despite many efforts have been made to improve adaptive systems design methods they remain very heterogeneous and mostly limited to each domain of application. Moreover, the most of existing adaptive applications propose specific approaches for the development of new systems, without considering the opportunity to convert existing smart systems into adaptive systems. To overcome this limitation, this paper introduces an approach able to support the designers in adapting an already existing system. To this purpose, a new design method, consisting of the three following steps, has been developed: (1) context analysis; (2) adaptive module design; and (3) system re-design. The described approach is applied, as an example, to a Wi-Fi system for the control and management of household appliances developed by a large Italian company.