Online ML Self-adaptation in Face of Traps
Michal Töpfer František Plášil Tomáš Bureš Petr Hnětynka Martin Kruliš Danny Weyns
Online machine learning (ML) is often used in self-adaptive systems to
strengthen the adaptation mechanism and improve the system utility. Despite
such benefits, applying online ML for self-adaptation can be challenging, and
not many papers report its limitations. Recently, we experimented with applying
online ML for self-adaptation of a smart farming scenario and we had faced
several unexpected difficulties -- traps -- that, to our knowledge, are not
discussed enough in the community. In this paper, we report our experience with
these traps. Specifically, we discuss several traps that relate to the
specification and online training of the ML-based estimators, their impact on
self-adaptation, and the approach used to evaluate the estimators. Our overview
of these traps provides a list of lessons learned, which can serve as guidance
for other researchers and practitioners when applying online ML for
self-adaptation.