A family of languages for trustworthy agent-based simulation

Abstract

Simulation is a key tool for researching complex system behaviour. Agent-based simulation has been applied across domains, such as biology, health, economics and urban sciences. However, engineering robust, efficient, maintainable, and reliable agent-based simulations is challenging. We present a vision for engineering agent simulations comprising a family of domain-specific modelling languages (DSMLs) that integrates core software engineering, validation and simulation experimentation. We relate the vision to examples of principled simulation , to show how the DSMLs would improve robustness, efficiency, and maintainability o simulations. Focusing on how to demonstrate the fitness for purpose of
a simulator, the envisaged approach supports bi-directional transparency and traceability between the original domain understanding to the implementation, interpretation of results and evaluation of hypotheses.

Citation

(2020). A family of languages for trustworthy agent-based simulation. https://doi.org/10.1145/3426425.3426929

• Acceptance Date: Sep 9, 2020
• Publication Date: Nov 16, 2020
• Journal: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies 2020, CompSysTech 2020, Ruse, Bulgaria, June 19-20, 2020
• Pages: 16-21
• Series Title: ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language En-gineering (SLE ’20),
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3426425.3426929
• Keywords: agent-based simulation, domain-specific modelling languages, CoSMoS
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3426425.3426929