Computer-Aided or Autonomous System Porting Between Heterogeneous Hardware Platforms

I'm looking into a topic that is new to me. Say you have an operational system with a collection of processors, FPGAs, and interfaces to external connectors and varied circuits / sensors - all connected in some topology. Then you have a second system that is a similar setup but not identical. You want to port the behavior of one system to the other. 
I am aware of the manual process of porting between platforms and that there are many, many places where a port can go wrong. 
But I want to investigate whether work has done work on either computer aided, semi-autonomous, or autonomous system porting. I've searched for papers on the topic, but so far have come up with nothing except some abstract AI-type work. I don't think I need to go to that level to aid / automate system porting. Does this topic fall under some common title that I am missing? Has anyone seen any work being done in this area? 
Thanks in advance. 

I was lucky enough to get into electronics a few years before a certain two-word chain went bankrupt. I remember needing 3 switches, some wire, some input jacks, and some LEDs and being able to drive to the store and be back in 30 minutes, multiple times in one day sometimes, and complete a project.I'm working on a guitar effects pedal, and I needed a single jfet for a buffer circuit, and some power connectors to clean the wiring up. Instead of being able to go down to the store and buy 3 parts for under 10 dollars, I now need to go online and spend 30 dollars for 3 parts I need, and 27 that will clutter my parts bin and then wait several days just to continue on a project that I desperately want to use.