Future technology needs adaptive, autonomous, self-aware and intelligent behavior offering solutions that are intuitively integrated in our everyday surroundings. One such approach is presented illustrating the major engineering process of autonomous systems' construction. The dynamism and autonomous nature of the system elements is modeled by the novel communication/distribution principle that is knowledge- and predicate-based, allowing for late (at run-time) evaluation of communication and connection rules among the system elements. The approach is presented in terms of the major development life-cycle phases -- requirements specification, modeling and deployment -- and is illustrated on a concrete application example.