Satisficing-Based Approach to Resolve Feature Interactions in Control Systems

To handle the complexity of modern control systems there is an urgent need to develop features as independently developed units of extension. However, when independently developed features are later composed they become coupled through the shared environment resources. As a consequence, the system requirements may no longer be entailed when independent features try to control the same shared environment. Malfunctioning behavior as a consequence of feature interference is know in the literature as the feature interaction problem. This paper present an approach that uses designtime specification of independent requirements, in combination with a runtime arbitrator that search for feature interaction free programs which entail the system requirements. In case of conflicting requirements that can't be satisfied simultaneously, the mechanism supports explanation of the interactions as a context sharing problem. We demonstrate our approach in a real-life control system for industrial pot plant cultivation in greenhouses and show that solutions are found for compatible requirements and that conflicts are identified and explained for incompatible requirements. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.