Architecture of Computing Systems (Lecture Notes in Computer ...

154 B. Becker et al.
An optimizing algorithm is used on the SHMD to calculate the best schedule for
the smart-home’s electrical consumers for the next 24 hours. In the following,
an approach is described to meet this challenge.
4 The Generic Observer/Controller Architecture
The complexity of technical systems is constantly increasing. Breakdowns and
fatal errors occur quite often, respectively. Therefore, the mission of organic
computing is to restrain these challenges in technical systems by providing appropriate
degrees of freedom for self-organized behavior. These technical systems
should adapt to changing requirements of their execution environment, in
particular with respect to human needs. According to this vision an organic
computer system should be aware of its own capabilities, the requirements of
the environment, and it should also be equipped with a number of so-called
self-x-properties [2].
Thus, technical systems are equipped with an observation and control layer
called observer/controller architecture, as proposed in [6]. The intention of this
design paradigm is to be able to observe and potentially control the systems
in order to comply with the objectives given by the user or the developer, cf.
Fig. 3(a).
The observer/controller uses a set of sensors and actuators to measure system
variables and to influence the system. Together with the system under observation
and control (SuOC), the observer/controller forms the so-called organic
SuOC
: agent/robot/entity
system status
goals
observer reports controller
observes
learning
controls
input output
organic system
(a) Simplified view of the centralized observer/controller
architecture
SuOC
: agent/robot/entity
system status
goals
observer reports controller
observes
learning
controls
o c o c
input o c
output
o c
o c
o c
o c o c o c
organic system
(b) Hierarchically structured view
Fig. 3. Variants of the generic observer/controller architecture