“Self-improving system integration” (SISSY) is a research initiative that aims to master the ever-changing demands of system organisation in the presence of highly-dynamic autonomous subsystems, evolving architectures, and unpredictable open environments. In contrast to traditional system modelling, design and development – typically performed by engineers, offline – the SISSY vision promotes automated integration-related decisions, performed during run-time. This implies a change of responsibilities, from engineers to the system itself, which must now find ways to restructure and reassemble itself so as to achieve its objectives. In addition to self-integrating and self-improving internally, such systems must equally be able to cooperate or co-exist with other autonomous systems, which may dynamically join a shared environment. In this editorial, we briefly introduce the ‘self-improving system integration’ initiative and summarise the contents of this special issue.

“自我完善的系统集成”（SISSY）是一项研究计划，旨在在高度动态的自治子系统，不断发展的体系结构和不可预测的开放环境中，掌握系统组织不断变化的需求。与传统的系统建模相反，SISSY的愿景是促进在运行时执行的自动化集成相关决策，而通常由工程师离线进行设计和开发。。这意味着从工程师到系统本身的职责变化，现在必须找到重新构造和重组自身以实现其目标的方法。除了在内部进行自我集成和自我完善之外，此类系统还必须能够与其他自治系统合作或共存，其他自治系统可以动态地加入共享环境。在这篇社论中，我们简要介绍了“自我改进系统集成”计划，并总结了本期特刊的内容。