Paper Detail

Phyelds: A Pythonic Framework for Aggregate Computing

Gianluca Aguzzi, Davide Domini, Nicolas Farabegoli, Mirko Viroli

arxiv Score 7.8

Published 2026-03-31 · First seen 2026-04-01

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Abstract

Aggregate programming is a field-based coordination paradigm with over a decade of exploration and successful applications across domains including sensor networks, robotics, and IoT, with implementations in various programming languages, such as Protelis, ScaFi (Scala), and FCPP (C++). A recent research direction integrates machine learning with aggregate computing, aiming to support large-scale distributed learning and provide new abstractions for implementing learning algorithms. However, existing implementations do not target data science practitioners, who predominantly work in Python--the de facto language for data science and machine learning, with a rich and mature ecosystem. Python also offers advantages for other use cases, such as education and robotics (e.g., via ROS). To address this gap, we present Phyelds, a Python library for aggregate programming. Phyelds offers a fully featured yet lightweight implementation of the field calculus model of computation, featuring a Pythonic API and an architecture designed for seamless integration with Python's machine learning ecosystem. We describe the design and implementation of Phyelds and illustrate its versatility across domains, from well-known aggregate computing patterns to federated learning coordination and integration with a widely used multi-agent reinforcement learning simulator.

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BibTeX

@article{aguzzi2026phyelds,
  title = {Phyelds: A Pythonic Framework for Aggregate Computing},
  author = {Gianluca Aguzzi and Davide Domini and Nicolas Farabegoli and Mirko Viroli},
  year = {2026},
  abstract = {Aggregate programming is a field-based coordination paradigm with over a decade of exploration and successful applications across domains including sensor networks, robotics, and IoT, with implementations in various programming languages, such as Protelis, ScaFi (Scala), and FCPP (C++). A recent research direction integrates machine learning with aggregate computing, aiming to support large-scale distributed learning and provide new abstractions for implementing learning algorithms. However, exi},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.29999},
  keywords = {cs.SE, cs.AI, cs.PL},
  eprint = {2603.29999},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
}

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