Aggregate computing is an emerging approach to the engineering of complex coordination for distributed systems, based on viewing system interactions in terms of information propagating through collectives of devices, rather than in terms of individual devices and their interaction with their peers and environment. The foundation of this approach is the distillation of a number of prior approaches, both formal and pragmatic, proposed under the umbrella of field-based coordination, and culminating into the field calculus, a universal functional programming model for the specification and composition of collective behaviours with equivalent local and aggregate semantics. This foundation has been elaborated into a layered approach to engineering coordination of complex distributed systems, building up to pragmatic applications through intermediate layers encompassing reusable libraries of program components. Furthermore, some of these components are formally shown to satisfy formal properties like self-stabilisation, which transfer to whole application services by functional composition. In this survey, we trace the development and antecedents of field calculus, review the field calculus itself and the current state of aggregate computing theory and practice, and discuss a roadmap of current research directions with implications for the development of a broad range of distributed systems.

聚合计算是一种针对分布式系统的复杂协调工程的新兴方法，该方法基于查看系统交互（从通过设备集合传播的信息来看），而不是从单个设备及其与对等设备和环境的交互来看。这种方法的基础是在基于现场的协调框架下提出的许多先前的正式和实用方法的提炼，最终达到现场演算，这是一种通用功能性编程模型，用于使用等效的局部语义和聚合语义来规范和构造集体行为。该基础已被详细阐述为用于复杂分布式系统的工程协调的分层方法，可通过包含程序组件可重用库的中间层来构建实用的应用程序。此外，这些组件中的某些组件已正式显示满足形式特性，例如自稳定，这些特性通过功能组成转移到整个应用程序服务中。在这项调查中，我们追踪了场演算的发展和前因，回顾了场演算本身以及聚合计算理论和实践的现状，