Objects as actors assuming roles in the environment

To achieve the goal of realizing object adaptation to environments, a new role-based model Epsilon and a language EpsilonJ are proposed. In Epsilon, an environment is defined as a field of collaboration between roles and an object adapts to the environment assuming one of the roles. Objects can freely enter or leave environments and belong to multiple environments at a time so that dynamic adaptation or evolution of objects is realized. Environments and roles are the first class constructs at runtime as well as at model description time so that separation of concerns is not only materialized as a static structure but also observable as behaviors. Environments encapsulating collaboration are independent reuse components to be deployed separately from objects. In this paper, the Epsilon model and the language are explained with some examples. The effectiveness of the model is illustrated by a case study on the problem of integrated systems. Implementation of the language is also reported.