Self-explanation in adaptive systems based on runtime goal-based models

Welsh, Kristopher and Bencomo, Nelly and Sawyer, Pete and Whittle, Jon (2014) Self-explanation in adaptive systems based on runtime goal-based models. In: Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence XVI :. Lecture Notes in Computer Science . Springer, Berlin, pp. 122-145. ISBN 9783662448700

Abstract

The behaviour of self adaptive systems can be emergent, which means that the system’s behaviour may be seen as unexpected by its customers and its developers. Therefore, a self-adaptive system needs to garner confidence in its customers and it also needs to resolve any surprise on the part of the developer during testing and maintenance. We believe that these two functions can only be achieved if a self-adaptive system is also capable of self-explanation. We argue a self-adaptive system’s behaviour needs to be explained in terms of satisfaction of its requirements. Since self-adaptive system requirements may themselves be emergent, we propose the use of goal-based requirements models at runtime to offer self-explanation of how a system is meeting its requirements. We demonstrate the analysis of run-time requirements models to yield a self-explanation codified in a domain specific language, and discuss possible future work.