Modeling self-adaptive software systems with learning petri nets

Traditional models unable to model adaptive software systems since they deal with fixed requirements only, but cannot handle the behaviors that change at runtime in response to environmental changes. In this paper, an adaptive Petri net (APN) is proposed to model a self-adaptive software system. It is an extension of hybrid Petri nets by embedding a neural network algorithm into them at some special transitions. The proposed net has the following advantages: 1) it can model a runtime environment; 2) the components in the model can collaborate to make adaption decisions while the system is running; and 3) the computation is done at the local component, while the adaption is for the whole system. We illustrate the proposed APN by modeling a manufacturing system.