Metamorphic systems: A new model for adaptive system design

The evolvable hardware field has been an area of research interest since the early 1990s. However, the number of significant accomplishments has noticeably diminished in recent years. In this paper we discuss several reasons why this is so. We then introduce a new model called metamorphic systems that builds upon evolvable hardware principles placing more emphasis on adapting system behavior rather than evolving desired system behavior. Our metamorphic system approach is better suited to non-electronic systems. Two example metamorphic systems are presented.