Title: Using a teleo-reactive approach in building self-managing systems

Authors: James Hawthorne; Richard Anthony

Addresses: School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Greenwich, Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK ' School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Greenwich, Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK

Abstract: The Teleo-Reactive programming style has been demonstrated as an effective and robust way to design the logical processes of autonomous agents. This robustness is largely due to an approach to achieve goals and deal with unexpected events which is much more like the human thought process than traditional programming techniques, as it works at a higher, more abstract level. We find that this approach is as effective in producing much higher level autonomous applications, providing the same benefits as the technique does for lower level robotics and autonomous agents. The technique embraces unexpected change, accepting that events and errors are inevitable and instead of attempting to preempt these possibilities, simply moves the current state back or forward through the program accordingly. We have built a framework to assist in engineering applications using this technique. Using this framework, we develop self-managing programs that demonstrate our claims.

Keywords: robust software; goal-based systems; software frameworks; error recovery; context awareness; self-managing programs; autonomic computing; software paradigm; teleo-reactive programming; autonomous agents; engineering applications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAACS.2012.047658

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 2012 Vol.5 No.3, pp.255 - 273

Published online: 05 Dec 2014 *

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