A Study on the Parallelization of Terrain-Covering Ant Robots Simulations

Agent-based simulation is used as a tool for supporting (time-critical) decision making in differentiated contexts. Hence, techniques for speeding up the execution of agent-based models, such as Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES), are of great relevance/benefit. On the other hand, parallelism entails that the final output provided by the simulator should closely match the one provided by a traditional sequential run. This is not obvious given that, for performance and efficiency reasons, parallel simulation engines do not allow the evaluation of global predicates on the simulation model evolution with arbitrary time-granularity along the simulation time-Axis. In this article we present a study on the effects of parallelization of agent-based simulations, focusing on complementary aspects such as performance and reliability of the provided simulation output. We target Terrain Covering Ant Robots (TCAR) simulations, which are useful in rescue scenarios to determine how many agents (i.e., robots) should be used to completely explore a certain terrain for possible victims within a given time. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

A multi-agent simulation approach to sustainability in tourism development

In the last decades the increasing facility in moving and the simultaneous fall of the transportation costs have strongly increased the tourist flows. As a consequence, different destinations, especially those which are rich of natural resources, unable or unready to sustain huge tourism flows, present serious problems of sustainability and Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC). At the present, it is universally recognized that every tourist destination should plan effective and pro-reactive protection policies of its cultural, environmental and social resources. In order to facilitate policies definition it may be useful to measure the Tourist Carrying Capacity, but the literature has highlighted that this is not an easy task for different reasons: among the others, the complexity and the dynamicity of the concept, the absence of a universally accepted definition and the impossibility of assigning an objective scientific value and to apply a rigorous analysis. Thereby, more recently an alternative, or even complementary, interpretation of TCC has developed; it is called LAC, Limit of Acceptable Changes where the focus shifts from: “How much use an area can tolerate?†to “How much change is acceptable?â€, aiming at evaluating the costs and benefits from alternative management tourism actions. The aim of the paper is to present an innovative framework, based on the LAC approach - MABSiT, Mobile Agent Behavior Simulation in Tourism - developed by the authors, which is composed by five modules: elaboration data, DBMS, ad-hoc maps, agents and ontology. Its modular structure allows to easily study the interactions among the components in order to observe the behavior of the single agents. In an aggregate form, it is possible to define group dynamics, where one possible effect is the influence on the variation of agents’ satisfaction perception in comparison to the surroundings environment. The paper will be structured as follows: an introduction will be followed by a literature review; than the methodology and the framework will be presented and applied to a case study: Vieste, a known maritime destination of South of Italy, which is characterized by high problems of seasonality in the summer. Finally, some conclusions and policy recommendations will be drawn.

Using agent based simulation to empirically examine complexity in carbon footprint business process

Through the critical analysis of the extant literature, it is observed that Simulation is widely used as a research method in Natural Sciences, Engineering and Social Sciences, in addition to argumentation and formalisation as the third way of carrying out research. Simulation is not so widely used in Business and Management research as it ought to have been, though this is changing for the better with the technological advances in computers and their computational power. These technological advances enhance the capability of theoretical research models, in defining a problem and their use in empirically examining a solution to the problem in simulated reality, like never before. Management journal searches for “Simulation and Complexity Theory” returned nil or zero returns, which explain that this combination is not popular in management research, though they are used individually more often. The major objective of this paper is to analyse some of the conceptual (or theoretical) and methodological (or empirical) contributions that Agent Based Simulation and Complexity Theory can make to the business and management community in their business process related research In view of this, some basic ideas are discussed of using Agent Based Simulation as a method in Business and Management Studies research and how an Agent Based Model can be applied to a business process as complex as Carbon Footprint. It is in this context that the use of Complexity as the base theory to empirically examine a business process is discussed. Throughout this article, our research on complex adaptive systems (e.g., Accounting Information System) in continuously changing organisations managing complex business processes (e.g., Carbon Footprint business process) is considered as the basis for illustrating some of the concepts. Through this article, avenues for further management research using these tools and methodology are suggested

Simulasi Berbasis Agen untuk Evakuasi Bencana Kerumunan Lapangan Indoor Gor X

Perencanaan dan persiapan sebelum terjadi bencana merupakan kunci aktivita dalam manajemen keadaan darurat. Penerapan langkah-langkah keamanan yang tepat dapat mengurangi dampak bahaya yang terjadi ketika bencana pada kerumunan manusia di lapangan indoor GOR (Gelanggang Olah Raga) X. Namun evaluasi dan pemlihan langkah-langkah kemananan yang tepat sulit dilakukan dikarenakan banyaknya skenario penanggulangan bencana yang ada dilingkungan, ditambah dengan biaya yang tinggi terkait skenario tersebut. Makalah ini menyajikan model komputasi yang mensimulasikan evakuasi bencana, dimana manusia sebagai agent mempunyai aktivitas interaksi secara otonom atau berkelompok terhadap lingkungan yang mempunyai jalur evakuasi, susunan tepat duduk, dan sistem pendukung keputusan untuk mencari jalan keluar terdekat. Tujuan prototipe simulasi ini yaitu untuk mendapatkan presentasi jumlah kapasitas penonton lapangan indoor GOR X. Eksperimen dilakukan dengan skenario simulasi menurut 2 faktor yang dimiliki agent yaitu Number of Agent dan Number Scared of Agent. Berdasarkan hasil eksperimen skenario dengan waktu evakuasi terbaik ada pada skala 60-80% dimana hasil setelahnya waktu yang diperlukan cenderung konstan. Model simulasi ini bisa menjadi salah satu alternatif untuk pendukung sistem keputusan dalam memberikan rekomendasi perencanaan kapasitas penonton yang akan diambil oleh pihak manajemen atau penyelenggara kegiatan di lapangan indoor GOR X