Design of a simulation environment based on software agents and the high level architecture

We present the SSAHLA project, standing for Simulation based on Software Agents and the High Level Architecture. This project aims at designing a simulation environment for training scenarios, using software agents and the High Level Architecture (HLA). Software agents are considered due to their relevant features to simulation, such as autonomy, adaptability, and collaboration. The HLA is considered as a communication middleware between the participants who take part to the training sessions. Each participant is associated with different types of agents that work for him and thus, perform operations on his behalf. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

A DISTRIBUTED APPROACH TO ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

Swarm Intelligence(SI) is the emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple agents. Economy is an example of SI. Simulating an economy using Ant Colony algorithms would allow prediction and control of fluctuations in the complex emergent behavior of the simulated system. Such a simulation is far beyond SI's capabilities, which is still in its infancy. This paper presents a distributed approach implementing Ant Colony Optimization(ACO). We present our agent based architecture of ACO and initial experimental results on the Travelling Salesman Problem. The innovation of our work consists of: i)representing network nodes as software agents, ii) representing software agents as software objects that are passed as messages between the nodes according to ACO rules.Swarm Intelligence, Ant Colony Optimization, Multi-Agent, Distributed, Heuristis

E&F Chaos: a user friendly software package for nonlinear economic dynamics

The use of nonlinear dynamic models in economics and finance has expanded rapidly in the last two decades. Numerical simulation is crucial in the investigation of nonlinear systems. E&F Chaos is an easy-to-use and freely available software package for simulation of nonlinear dynamic models to investigate stability of steady states and the presence of periodic orbits and chaos by standard numerical simulation techniques such as time series, phase plots, bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponent plots, basin boundary plots and graphical analysis. The package contains many well-known nonlinear models, including applications in economics and finance, and is easy to use for non-specialists. New models and extensions or variations are easy to implement within the software package without the use of a compiler or other software. The software is demonstrated by investigating the dynamical behavior of some simple examples of the familiar cobweb model, including an extension with heterogeneous agents and asynchronous updating of strategies. Simulations with the E&F chaos software quickly provide information about local and global dynamics and easily lead to challenging questions for further mathematical analysis.

Using Computational Agents to Design Participatory Social Simulations

In social science, the role of stakeholders is increasing in the development and use of simulation models. Their participation in the design of agent-based models (ABMs) has widely been considered as an efficient solution to the validation of this particular type of model. Traditionally, "agents" (as basic model elements) have not been concerned with stakeholders directly but via designers or role-playing games (RPGs). In this paper, we intend to bridge this gap by introducing computational or software agents, implemented from an initial ABM, into a new kind of RPG, mediated by computers, so that these agents can interact with stakeholders. This interaction can help not only to elicit stakeholders' informal knowledge or unpredicted behaviours, but also to control stakeholders' focus during the games. We therefore formalize a general participatory design method using software agents, and illustrate it by describing our experience in a project aimed at developing agent-based social simulations in the field of air traffic management.Participatory Social Simulations, Agent-Based Social Simulations, Computational Agents, Role-Playing Games, Artificial Maieutics, User-Centered Design

SIMMUNE, a tool for simulating and analyzing immune system behavior

We present a new approach to the simulation and analysis of immune system behavior. The simulations that can be done with our software package called SIMMUNE are based on immunological data that describe the behavior of immune system agents (cells, molecules) on a microscopial (i.e. agent-agent interaction) scale by defining cellular stimulus-response mechanisms. Since the behavior of the agents in SIMMUNE can be very flexibly configured, its application is not limited to immune system simulations. We outline the principles of SIMMUNE's multiscale analysis of emergent structure within the simulated immune system that allow the identification of immunological contexts using minimal a priori assumptions about the higher level organization of the immune system.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Socio-Economic Mechanisms to Coordinate the Internet of Services: The Simulation Environment SimIS

Visions of 21st century information systems show highly specialized digital services and resources, which interact continuously and with a global reach. Especially with the emergence of technologies, such as the semantic web or software agents, intelligent services within these settings can be implemented, automatically communicating and negotiating over the Internet about digital resources without human intervention. Such environments will eventually realize the vision of an open and global Internet of Services (IoS). In this paper we present an agent-based simulation model and toolkit for the IoS: 'SimIS - Simulating an Internet of Services'. Employing SimIS, distributed management mechanisms and protocols can be investigated in a simulated IoS environment before their actual deployment.Multi-Agent Simulation, Internet, Simulation Tools