ASMA: Autonomous Software Management Agent system

The ASMA (Autonomous Software Management Agent) system is used as a practical application of basic life-like characteristics, like reproduction, growth, death, movement and metabolic cycle, in a software agent. As software management moves toward automation, we are seeing increasing relevance in incorporating autonomous behaviour into the system. Among other advantages, these characteristics allow application software to be deployed independently by the users; administrators only need prepare the software once for the system and then leave the entire deployment and maintenance to the users. This not only reduces the workload of administrators but also improves the availability of software for the users. Each of these characteristics describes the essential features of a living organism, and we illustrate in this application that they are useful, if not essential, to agent architectures.