Agent-Based Simulation 5
Lisbon, Portugal
3-5 May 2004

Keynote Speakers

Monday May 3, 2004

9h30 - 10h30

 

Methodological impacts of User Interaction in Agent-Based Simulation

Yves Demazeau

The interaction between an agent-based simulation system and a user is usually considered as being secondary behind the design and development of the agent system itself. We believe that this is largely a mistake and that the interaction with a multi-agent system has to be taken into account from the very beginning of the analysis process itself. We will first discuss the three types of usage one may find within multi-agent systems, from the most immersive ones where the user is more an actor to the most indirect ones where the user is more an observer. In every case we will study the particular expectations of the user and see which characteristics this implies for the design and development of the system. We will also explore how this also affects the evaluation of the system itself. We will illustrate the presentation with examples coming from the domain of interactive games which hopefully covers the three categories of usage one may find in multi-agent systems. As a conclusion, we will show that giving back to the user the more important place she should have, we hope to generate more useful agent-based simulation systems.

Wednesday May 5, 2004

9h30 - 10h30

 

Simulation as Part of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering

Adelinde Uhrmacher

 

The more complex software systems become that are intended to work autonomously in open dynamic environments, the more important a systematic experimentation will be. However, for modeling and simulation to play an as important and accepted role in designing software agents as they do today in other areas, e.g. designing manufacturing systems, the testing of agents has to be comfortable, efficient, and effective, and to be firmly rooted within the agent-oriented software engineering process. Challenges have to be faced at the level of theoretical foundations of modeling and simulation, modeling and simulation methodologies, and implementations, equally. The software to be tested, the objective of the simulation study, and the stage of the agent software development influence the environmental model used for testing and the mechanism that synchronize the execution of agents and simulation. A clear distinction between model and simulation layer, and a modular component-based design of the simulation system support the required flexibility. It will be explored, how suitable mechanisms for execution might be chosen on demand in setting up simulation experiments.