106 research outputs found

    Tools of the Trade: A Survey of Various Agent Based Modeling Platforms

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    Agent Based Modeling (ABM) toolkits are as diverse as the community of people who use them. With so many toolkits available, the choice of which one is best suited for a project is left to word of mouth, past experiences in using particular toolkits and toolkit publicity. This is especially troublesome for projects that require specialization. Rather than using toolkits that are the most publicized but are designed for general projects, using this paper, one will be able to choose a toolkit that already exists and that may be built especially for one's particular domain and specialized needs. In this paper, we examine the entire continuum of agent based toolkits. We characterize each based on 5 important characteristics users consider when choosing a toolkit, and then we categorize the characteristics into user-friendly taxonomies that aid in rapid indexing and easy reference.Agent Based Modeling, Individual Based Model, Multi Agent Systems

    Modeling human and organizational behavior using a relation-centric multi-agent system design paradigm

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    Today's modeling and simulation communities are being challenged to create rich, detailed models incorporating human decision-making and organizational behavior. Recent advances in distributed artificial intelligence and complex systems theory have demonstrated that such ill-defined problems can be effectively modeled with agent-based simulation techniques using multiple, autonomoous, adaptive entities. RELATE, a relation-centric design paradigm for multi-agent systems (MAS), is presented to assist developers incorporate MAS solutions into their simulations. RELATe focuses the designer on six key concepts of MAS simulations: relationships, environment, laws, agents, things, and effectors. A library of Java classes is presented which enables the user to rapidly prototype an agent-based simulation. This library utilizes the Java programming language to support cross-platform and web based designs. All Java classes and interfaces are fully documented using HTML Javadoc format. Two reference cases are provided that allow for easy code reuse and modification. Finally, an existing metworked DIS-Java-VRML simulation was modified to demonstrate the ability to utilize the RELATE library to add agents to existing applications. LCDR Kim Roddy focused on the development and refinement of the RELATE design paradigm, while LT Mike Dickson focused on the actual Java implementation. Joint work was conducted on all research and reference caseshttp://www.archive.org/details/modelinghumanorg00roddU.S. Navy (U.S.N.) author

    Toward a Bio-Inspired System Architecting Framework: Simulation of the Integration of Autonomous Bus Fleets & Alternative Fuel Infrastructures in Closed Sociotechnical Environments

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    Cities are set to become highly interconnected and coordinated environments composed of emerging technologies meant to alleviate or resolve some of the daunting issues of the 21st century such as rapid urbanization, resource scarcity, and excessive population demand in urban centers. These cybernetically-enabled built environments are expected to solve these complex problems through the use of technologies that incorporate sensors and other data collection means to fuse and understand large sums of data/information generated from other technologies and its human population. Many of these technologies will be pivotal assets in supporting and managing capabilities in various city sectors ranging from energy to healthcare. However, among these sectors, a significant amount of attention within the recent decade has been in the transportation sector due to the flood of new technological growth and cultivation, which is currently seeing extensive research, development, and even implementation of emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles (AVs), the Internet of Things (IoT), alternative xxxvi fueling sources, clean propulsion technologies, cloud/edge computing, and many other technologies. Within the current body of knowledge, it is fairly well known how many of these emerging technologies will perform in isolation as stand-alone entities, but little is known about their performance when integrated into a transportation system with other emerging technologies and humans within the system organization. This merging of new age technologies and humans can make analyzing next generation transportation systems extremely complex to understand. Additionally, with new and alternative forms of technologies expected to come in the near-future, one can say that the quantity of technologies, especially in the smart city context, will consist of a continuously expanding array of technologies whose capabilities will increase with technological advancements, which can change the performance of a given system architecture. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand the system architecture implications of integrating different alternative fueling infrastructures with autonomous bus (AB) fleets in the transportation system within a closed sociotechnical environment. By being able to understand the system architecture implications of alternative fueling infrastructures and AB fleets, this could provide performance-based input into a more sophisticated approach or framework which is proposed as a future work of this research

    Investigating biocomplexity through the agent-based paradigm.

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    Capturing the dynamism that pervades biological systems requires a computational approach that can accommodate both the continuous features of the system environment as well as the flexible and heterogeneous nature of component interactions. This presents a serious challenge for the more traditional mathematical approaches that assume component homogeneity to relate system observables using mathematical equations. While the homogeneity condition does not lead to loss of accuracy while simulating various continua, it fails to offer detailed solutions when applied to systems with dynamically interacting heterogeneous components. As the functionality and architecture of most biological systems is a product of multi-faceted individual interactions at the sub-system level, continuum models rarely offer much beyond qualitative similarity. Agent-based modelling is a class of algorithmic computational approaches that rely on interactions between Turing-complete finite-state machines--or agents--to simulate, from the bottom-up, macroscopic properties of a system. In recognizing the heterogeneity condition, they offer suitable ontologies to the system components being modelled, thereby succeeding where their continuum counterparts tend to struggle. Furthermore, being inherently hierarchical, they are quite amenable to coupling with other computational paradigms. The integration of any agent-based framework with continuum models is arguably the most elegant and precise way of representing biological systems. Although in its nascence, agent-based modelling has been utilized to model biological complexity across a broad range of biological scales (from cells to societies). In this article, we explore the reasons that make agent-based modelling the most precise approach to model biological systems that tend to be non-linear and complex

    Complexity: Theoretical and methodological applications for sociology

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    This thesis examines the usefulness of Complexity as a new tool for sociology. Complexity, as its own branch of study, developed from the new science of Chaos. Recent paradigmatic disputes occurring in the scientific community have been the force of a growing sense of change in the way many different disciplines view complex systems. Since it is evident that social systems are typically highly complex, it makes sense that a scientific paradigm, which investigates the nature of complex systems, should also be applicable to social systems. Science now argues that the old Newtonian clockwork mentalities and classical experimental models cannot adequately describe highly complex systems. Instead anti-reductionist and nonlinear theories and methods may be much better suited for the task. The sociological relevance of Complexity---both its conceptual framework and its methodologies---is important and timely as we reach the limits of our current knowledge using standard reductionist thinking and methods

    Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with Choice and Refusal of Partners

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    This article extends the traditional iterated prisoner's dilemma (IPD) with round-robin partner matching by permitting players to choose and refuse partners in each iteration on the basis of continually updated expected payoffs. Comparative computer experiments are reported that indicate the introduction of partner choice and refusal accelerates the emergence of mutual cooperation in the IPD relative to round-robin partner matching. Moreover, in contrast to findings for round-robin partner matching (in which the average payoffs of the players tend to be either clustered around the mutual cooperation payoff or widely scattered), the average payoff scores of the players with choice and refusal of partners tend to cluster into two or more distinct narrow bands. Preliminary analytical and computational sensitivity studies are also reported for several key parameters. Related work can be accessed here: http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/tnghome.htmiterated prisoner's dilemma; preferential partner selection; evolutionary game theory

    Complex Systems in Engineering and Technology Education: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating the Role Computer Simulations Serve in Student Learning

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    This research was conducted to determine if students receiving complex systems instruction in the form of software simulations recognize patterns and underlying elements of complex systems more effectively than students receiving traditional instruction. Complex systems were investigated with an analytic (reductive) approach in a control group and with a synthesis approach in the treatment group. Exploration of this top-down approach to learning complex systems counters traditional bottom-up methodologies, investigating systems and subsystems at the component level. The hypothesis was that students experiencing complex systems scenarios in a computer-based learning environment would outperform their counterparts by constructing a greater number of explanations with emergent-like responses. A mixed method experimental, pretest posttest, control group triangulation design research study was designed for high school students enrolled in an Introduction to Technology and Engineering course. A pretest consisting of one open-ended near transfer problem and one far transfer problem was administered, investigating the generation of reductive (clockwork) and complex (emergent-like) mental models. A stratified sampling procedure was used to assign students to control or treatment groups. Following treatment, an analysis of covariance failed to reveal statistically significant evidence supporting the hypothesis. However, qualitative data in the form of student transcriptions, daily lab reports, and data entry worksheets revealed evidence of emergent-like response and behaviors

    Distributed computing manipulatives

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    Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-67).Distributed systems and the emergent properties that can arise out of simple localized interactions have fascinated scientists and artists alike for the last century. They challenge the notions of control and creativity, producing outcomes that can be beautiful, engaging and surprising at the same time. While extensive work has been done using computer simulations of such systems in fields like artificial life and generative art, their physically embodied counterparts are still in their infancy, in part due to the complexity of building and deploying such systems. In this thesis, I will discuss how simple tangible nodes can enable playful and creative experimentation with the concept of emergent behavior. Specifically, I will address how embodied interaction scenarios involving parallel systems can be implemented and how a range of sensing and actuating possibilities can be leveraged to generate novel and engaging experiences for the end users. In particular, the use of sound will be explored as a medium for representation. Finally, I will argue that there is value in making the transition from software simulations to a situated and manipulable instantiation of these concepts, both for the designer of a system and its users.by David Bouchard.S.M

    DRAFT-What you always wanted to know but could not find about block-based environments

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    Block-based environments are visual programming environments, which are becoming more and more popular because of their ease of use. The ease of use comes thanks to their intuitive graphical representation and structural metaphors (jigsaw-like puzzles) to display valid combinations of language constructs to the users. Part of the current popularity of block-based environments is thanks to Scratch. As a result they are often associated with tools for children or young learners. However, it is unclear how these types of programming environments are developed and used in general. So we conducted a systematic literature review on block-based environments by studying 152 papers published between 2014 and 2020, and a non-systematic tool review of 32 block-based environments. In particular, we provide a helpful inventory of block-based editors for end-users on different topics and domains. Likewise, we focused on identifying the main components of block-based environments, how they are engineered, and how they are used. This survey should be equally helpful for language engineering researchers and language engineers alike
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