Spray Computers: Explorations in Self-Organization

We envision a future in which clouds of microcomputerscan be sprayed in an environment to provide, byspontaneously networking with each other, an endlesslyrange of futuristic applications. However, beside thevision, spraying may also act as a powerful metaphorfor a range of other scenarios that are already underformation, from ad-hoc networks of embedded andmobile devices to worldwide distributed computing.After having detailed the different spray computersscenarios and their applications, this paper discussesthe issues related to the design and development ofspray computer applications, issues which call for novelautonomic approaches exploiting self-organization asfirst-class tools. Finally, this paper presents the keyresearch efforts being taken in the area and attempt atdefining a rough research agenda.