A simulation framework for heterogeneous agents. (English) Zbl 1053.90041

Meyer, David; Karatzoglou, Alexandros; Leisch, Friedrich; Buchta, Christian; Hornik, Kurt

Comput. Econ. 22, No. 2-3, 285-301 (2003).

Summary: We introduce a generic simulation framework suitable for agent-based simulations featuring the support of heterogeneous agents, hierarchical scheduling, and flexible specification of design parameters. One key aspect of this framework is the design specification: we use a format based on the Extendible Markup Language (XML) that is simple-structured yet still enables the design of flexible models. Another issue in agent-based simulations, especially when ready-made components are used, is the heterogeneity arising from both the agents’ implementations and the underlying platforms. To tackle such obstacles, we introduce a wrapper technique for mapping the functionality of agents living in an interpreter-based environment to a standardized JAVA interface, thus facilitating the task for any control mechanism (like a simulation manager) because it has to handle only one set of commands for all agents involved. Again, this mapping is made by an XML-based definition format. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to a simple sample simulation of two mass marketing firms operating in an artificial consumer environment.

MSC:

90B35

Deterministic scheduling theory in operations research

Keywords:

simulation environment; agent-based simulation; scheduling; design; heterogeneous agents

Software:

ZEUS