AGENTMAP: A Conceptual Meta-Model of Interacting Simulations
A straightforward and intuitive combination of single simulations into an aggregated master-simulation is not trivial. There are lots of problems, which trigger-specific difficulties during the modeling and execution of such a simulation. In this paper we identify these problems and aim to solve them by mapping the task to the field of multi agent systems. The solution is a new meta-model named AGENTMAP, which is able to mitigate most of the problems and to support intuitive modeling at the same time. This meta-model will be introduced and explained on basis of an example from the e-commerce domain.
[1] A. Hummel, H. Kern, and A. D¨ohler, "An agent-based simulation of payment behavior in e-commerce," in Multiagent System Technologies,
ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, F. Kl¨ugl and S. Ossowski,
Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2011, vol. 6973, pp. 41-52,
10.1007/978-3-642-24603-6 6. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.
1007/978-3-642-24603-6 6
[2] D. Pawlaszczyk, Skalierbare agentenbasierte Simulation: Werkzeuge und
Techniken zur verteilten Ausf¨uhrung agentenbasierter Modelle, 1st ed. TU Ilmenau Universit¨atsbibliothek, Oct. 2009.
[3] P. Davidsson, "Multi agent based simulation: beyond social simulation,"
in Proceedings of the second international workshop on Multiagent
based simulation. Secaucus, NJ, USA: Springer-Verlag
New York, Inc., 2001, pp. 97-107. (Online). Available: http:
//portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=369837.369846
[4] A. Drogoul, D. Vanbergue, and T. Meurisse, "Multi-agent based
simulation: Where are the agents?" in Multi-Agent-Based Simulation
II, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. Sim˜ao Sichman, F. Bousquet, and P. Davidsson, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
2003, vol. 2581, pp. 43-49, 10.1007/3-540-36483-8 1. (Online).
Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36483-8 1
[5] M. J. Wooldridge, An Introduction to Multiagent Systems, 2nd ed. John
Wiley & Sons, May 2009.
[6] P. Braun and W. Rossak, Mobile Agents. Basic concepts, mobility
models, & the Tracy Toolkit, 1st ed. San Francisco, USA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers/dpunkt.verlag, 2005.
[7] D. Pawlaszczyk, "SIMJADE - Ein Simulationskernel f¨ur die verteilte
Simulation agentengest¨utzter Modelle," Tagungsband zum 9. Symposium
Soft Computing "Softwareagenten und Soft Computing im Gesch¨aftsprozessmanagement", pp. 129-144, Nov. 2006.
[8] G. Tecuci, Building Intelligent Agents: An Apprenticeship, Multistrategy
Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case Studies: An Apprenticeship
Multistrategy Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case
Studies, 1st ed. Academic Press, Jun. 1998.
[9] P. Knirsch and I. J. Timm, "Adaptive multiagent systems applied on
temporal logistics networks," in In: Logistics in the Information Age.
Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL-99)
(Muffatto, M., Pawar, K.S. (Eds)), 1999, pp. 213-218.
[10] N. R. Jennings and M. J. Wooldridge, Agent technology: Foundations,
Applications, and Markets. Berlin, Germany, 1. Neuauflage nach
Original von 1998: Springer Verlag, Feb. 2010.
[11] S. J. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial intelligence: A Modern Approach,
3rd ed. Prentice Hall, Feb. 2010.
[12] M. P. Singh, "A social semantics for agent communication languages,"
in Issues in Agent Communication. London, UK: Springer-Verlag,
2000, pp. 31-45. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=646973.713683
[13] Y. Labrou and T. Finin, "Semantics and conversations for an
agent communication language," in Readings in agents, M. N.
Huhns and M. P. Singh, Eds. San Francisco, CA, USA: Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers Inc., 1998, pp. 235-242. (Online). Available:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=284860.284907
[14] P. Bretier and D. Sadek, "A rational agent as the kernel of a
cooperative spoken dialogue system: Implementing a logical theory
of interaction," in Intelligent Agents III Agent Theories, Architectures,
and Languages, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. M¨uller,
M. Wooldridge, and N. Jennings, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
1997, vol. 1193, pp. 189-203, 10.1007/BFb0013586. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013586
[15] J. Choi, S.-K. Park, S.-C. Baeg, M.-W. Jang, G.-L. Lee, and Y.-H. Lim,
"Message-based agent communications in a tightly coupled multiagent
system," in Fourth Golden West International Conference on Intelligent
Systems (GWICS-95, 1995, pp. 194-198.
[16] J. Ferber and O. Gutknecht, “A meta-model for the analysis and
design of organizations in multi-agent systems,” in Proceedings of the
3rd International Conference on Multi Agent Systems, ser. ICMAS
’98. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 1998, pp.
128–. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=551984.
852257
[17] ——, “Operational semantics of multi-agent organizations,” in 6th
International Workshop on Intelligent Agents VI, Agent Theories,
Architectures, and Languages (ATAL),. London, UK: Springer-Verlag,
2000, pp. 205–217. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.
cfm?id=648206.749596
[18] O. Gutknecht, J. Ferber, and F. Michel, “Integrating tools and
infrastructures for generic multi-agent systems,” in Proceedings of the
fifth international conference on Autonomous agents, ser. AGENTS ’01.
New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2001, pp. 441–448. (Online). Available:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/375735.376410
[19] J. Odell, H. V. D. Parunak, S. Brueckner, and J. Sauter, “Changing
roles: Dynamic role assignment,” Journal of Object Technology,
vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 77–86, Sep. 2003, (column). (Online). Available:
http://www.jot.fm/contents/issue 2003 09/column7.html
[20] T. M. Prinz and W. R. Rossak, “Konzeptionelles Meta-Modell miteinander
interagierender Simulationen mit rollenbasierten Multiagentensystemen,”
in Jenaer Schriften zur Mathematik und Informatik. Jena,
Thuringia, Germany: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 2012, no.
202012, no. 1/12, Technical Report.
[21] J. Odell, M. Nodine, and R. Levy, “A metamodel for agents,
roles, and groups,” in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering V,
ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. Odell, P. Giorgini,
and J. M¨uller, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2005, vol.
3382, pp. 78–92, 10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 6. (Online). Available:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 6
[22] T. Juan, A. Pearce, and L. Sterling, “Roadmap: extending the
gaia methodology for complex open systems,” in Proceedings
of the first international joint conference on Autonomous agents
and multiagent systems: part 1, ser. AAMAS ’02. New York,
NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 3–10. (Online). Available: http:
//doi.acm.org/10.1145/544741.544744
[23] M. Broy, Eine grundlegende Einf¨uhrung: Band 1: Programmierung und
Rechnerstrukturen, 2nd ed. Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Nov.
1997.
[24] A. Deckert and R. Klein, “Agentenbasierte Simulation zur
Analyse und L¨osung betriebswirtschaftlicher Entscheidungsprobleme,”
Journal f¨ur Betriebswirtschaft, vol. 60, pp. 89–125, 2010, 10.1007/s11301-010-0058-6. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.
1007/s11301-010-0058-6
[25] P. A. Fishwick, “An introduction to opensimulator and virtual
environment agent-based m&s applications,” in Winter Simulation
Conference, ser. WSC ’09. Winter Simulation Conference, 2009,
pp. 177–183. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=
1995456.1995486
[26] C. M. Macal and M. J. North, “Agent-based modeling and simulation:
Abms examples,” in Proceedings of the 40th Conference on Winter
Simulation, ser. WSC ’08. Winter Simulation Conference, 2008,
pp. 101–112. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=
1516744.1516770
[27] ——, “Tutorial on agent-based modeling and simulation part 2: how
to model with agents,” in Proceedings of the 38th conference on
Winter simulation, ser. WSC ’06. Winter Simulation Conference,
2006, pp. 73–83. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=1218112.1218130
[28] J. H¨ubner, O. Boissier, R. Kitio, and A. Ricci, “Instrumenting
multi-agent organisations with organisational artifacts and agents,”
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, vol. 20, pp. 369–
400, 2010, 10.1007/s10458-009-9084-y. (Online). Available: http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10458-009-9084-y
[29] O. Boissier, F. Balbo, and F. Badeig, “Controlling multi-party
interaction within normative multi-agent organizations,” in Proceedings
of the 6th international conference on Coordination, organizations,
institutions, and norms in agent systems, ser. COIN@AAMAS’10.
Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2011, pp. 357–376. (Online).
Available: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2018118.2018141
[30] M. Esteva, D. de la Cruz, and C. Sierra, “Islander: an electronic
institutions editor,” in Proceedings of the first international joint
conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems: part 3, ser.
AAMAS ’02. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 1045–1052.
(Online). Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/545056.545069
[31] J. L. Arcos, M. Esteva, P. Noriega, J. A. Rodr´ıguez-Aguilar, and
C. Sierra, “Engineering open environments with electronic institutions,”
Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 191–204, Mar. 2005.
(Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2004.11.019
[32] E. Steegmans, D. Weyns, T. Holvoet, and Y. Berbers, “A design
process for adaptive behavior of situated agents,” in Agent-Oriented
Software Engineering V, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
J. Odell, P. Giorgini, and J. M¨uller, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
2005, vol. 3382, pp. 109–125, 10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 8. (Online).
Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 8
[33] P. Braun, I. M¨uller, S. Geisenhainer, V. Schau, and W. Rossak, “A
service-oriented software architecture for mobile agent toolkits,” Engineering
of Computer-Based Systems, IEEE International Conference
on the, vol. 0, p. 550, 2004.
[1] A. Hummel, H. Kern, and A. D¨ohler, "An agent-based simulation of payment behavior in e-commerce," in Multiagent System Technologies,
ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, F. Kl¨ugl and S. Ossowski,
Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2011, vol. 6973, pp. 41-52,
10.1007/978-3-642-24603-6 6. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.
1007/978-3-642-24603-6 6
[2] D. Pawlaszczyk, Skalierbare agentenbasierte Simulation: Werkzeuge und
Techniken zur verteilten Ausf¨uhrung agentenbasierter Modelle, 1st ed. TU Ilmenau Universit¨atsbibliothek, Oct. 2009.
[3] P. Davidsson, "Multi agent based simulation: beyond social simulation,"
in Proceedings of the second international workshop on Multiagent
based simulation. Secaucus, NJ, USA: Springer-Verlag
New York, Inc., 2001, pp. 97-107. (Online). Available: http:
//portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=369837.369846
[4] A. Drogoul, D. Vanbergue, and T. Meurisse, "Multi-agent based
simulation: Where are the agents?" in Multi-Agent-Based Simulation
II, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. Sim˜ao Sichman, F. Bousquet, and P. Davidsson, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
2003, vol. 2581, pp. 43-49, 10.1007/3-540-36483-8 1. (Online).
Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36483-8 1
[5] M. J. Wooldridge, An Introduction to Multiagent Systems, 2nd ed. John
Wiley & Sons, May 2009.
[6] P. Braun and W. Rossak, Mobile Agents. Basic concepts, mobility
models, & the Tracy Toolkit, 1st ed. San Francisco, USA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers/dpunkt.verlag, 2005.
[7] D. Pawlaszczyk, "SIMJADE - Ein Simulationskernel f¨ur die verteilte
Simulation agentengest¨utzter Modelle," Tagungsband zum 9. Symposium
Soft Computing "Softwareagenten und Soft Computing im Gesch¨aftsprozessmanagement", pp. 129-144, Nov. 2006.
[8] G. Tecuci, Building Intelligent Agents: An Apprenticeship, Multistrategy
Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case Studies: An Apprenticeship
Multistrategy Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case
Studies, 1st ed. Academic Press, Jun. 1998.
[9] P. Knirsch and I. J. Timm, "Adaptive multiagent systems applied on
temporal logistics networks," in In: Logistics in the Information Age.
Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL-99)
(Muffatto, M., Pawar, K.S. (Eds)), 1999, pp. 213-218.
[10] N. R. Jennings and M. J. Wooldridge, Agent technology: Foundations,
Applications, and Markets. Berlin, Germany, 1. Neuauflage nach
Original von 1998: Springer Verlag, Feb. 2010.
[11] S. J. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial intelligence: A Modern Approach,
3rd ed. Prentice Hall, Feb. 2010.
[12] M. P. Singh, "A social semantics for agent communication languages,"
in Issues in Agent Communication. London, UK: Springer-Verlag,
2000, pp. 31-45. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=646973.713683
[13] Y. Labrou and T. Finin, "Semantics and conversations for an
agent communication language," in Readings in agents, M. N.
Huhns and M. P. Singh, Eds. San Francisco, CA, USA: Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers Inc., 1998, pp. 235-242. (Online). Available:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=284860.284907
[14] P. Bretier and D. Sadek, "A rational agent as the kernel of a
cooperative spoken dialogue system: Implementing a logical theory
of interaction," in Intelligent Agents III Agent Theories, Architectures,
and Languages, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. M¨uller,
M. Wooldridge, and N. Jennings, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
1997, vol. 1193, pp. 189-203, 10.1007/BFb0013586. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013586
[15] J. Choi, S.-K. Park, S.-C. Baeg, M.-W. Jang, G.-L. Lee, and Y.-H. Lim,
"Message-based agent communications in a tightly coupled multiagent
system," in Fourth Golden West International Conference on Intelligent
Systems (GWICS-95, 1995, pp. 194-198.
[16] J. Ferber and O. Gutknecht, “A meta-model for the analysis and
design of organizations in multi-agent systems,” in Proceedings of the
3rd International Conference on Multi Agent Systems, ser. ICMAS
’98. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 1998, pp.
128–. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=551984.
852257
[17] ——, “Operational semantics of multi-agent organizations,” in 6th
International Workshop on Intelligent Agents VI, Agent Theories,
Architectures, and Languages (ATAL),. London, UK: Springer-Verlag,
2000, pp. 205–217. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.
cfm?id=648206.749596
[18] O. Gutknecht, J. Ferber, and F. Michel, “Integrating tools and
infrastructures for generic multi-agent systems,” in Proceedings of the
fifth international conference on Autonomous agents, ser. AGENTS ’01.
New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2001, pp. 441–448. (Online). Available:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/375735.376410
[19] J. Odell, H. V. D. Parunak, S. Brueckner, and J. Sauter, “Changing
roles: Dynamic role assignment,” Journal of Object Technology,
vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 77–86, Sep. 2003, (column). (Online). Available:
http://www.jot.fm/contents/issue 2003 09/column7.html
[20] T. M. Prinz and W. R. Rossak, “Konzeptionelles Meta-Modell miteinander
interagierender Simulationen mit rollenbasierten Multiagentensystemen,”
in Jenaer Schriften zur Mathematik und Informatik. Jena,
Thuringia, Germany: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 2012, no.
202012, no. 1/12, Technical Report.
[21] J. Odell, M. Nodine, and R. Levy, “A metamodel for agents,
roles, and groups,” in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering V,
ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. Odell, P. Giorgini,
and J. M¨uller, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2005, vol.
3382, pp. 78–92, 10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 6. (Online). Available:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 6
[22] T. Juan, A. Pearce, and L. Sterling, “Roadmap: extending the
gaia methodology for complex open systems,” in Proceedings
of the first international joint conference on Autonomous agents
and multiagent systems: part 1, ser. AAMAS ’02. New York,
NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 3–10. (Online). Available: http:
//doi.acm.org/10.1145/544741.544744
[23] M. Broy, Eine grundlegende Einf¨uhrung: Band 1: Programmierung und
Rechnerstrukturen, 2nd ed. Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Nov.
1997.
[24] A. Deckert and R. Klein, “Agentenbasierte Simulation zur
Analyse und L¨osung betriebswirtschaftlicher Entscheidungsprobleme,”
Journal f¨ur Betriebswirtschaft, vol. 60, pp. 89–125, 2010, 10.1007/s11301-010-0058-6. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.
1007/s11301-010-0058-6
[25] P. A. Fishwick, “An introduction to opensimulator and virtual
environment agent-based m&s applications,” in Winter Simulation
Conference, ser. WSC ’09. Winter Simulation Conference, 2009,
pp. 177–183. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=
1995456.1995486
[26] C. M. Macal and M. J. North, “Agent-based modeling and simulation:
Abms examples,” in Proceedings of the 40th Conference on Winter
Simulation, ser. WSC ’08. Winter Simulation Conference, 2008,
pp. 101–112. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=
1516744.1516770
[27] ——, “Tutorial on agent-based modeling and simulation part 2: how
to model with agents,” in Proceedings of the 38th conference on
Winter simulation, ser. WSC ’06. Winter Simulation Conference,
2006, pp. 73–83. (Online). Available: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?
id=1218112.1218130
[28] J. H¨ubner, O. Boissier, R. Kitio, and A. Ricci, “Instrumenting
multi-agent organisations with organisational artifacts and agents,”
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, vol. 20, pp. 369–
400, 2010, 10.1007/s10458-009-9084-y. (Online). Available: http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10458-009-9084-y
[29] O. Boissier, F. Balbo, and F. Badeig, “Controlling multi-party
interaction within normative multi-agent organizations,” in Proceedings
of the 6th international conference on Coordination, organizations,
institutions, and norms in agent systems, ser. COIN@AAMAS’10.
Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2011, pp. 357–376. (Online).
Available: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2018118.2018141
[30] M. Esteva, D. de la Cruz, and C. Sierra, “Islander: an electronic
institutions editor,” in Proceedings of the first international joint
conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems: part 3, ser.
AAMAS ’02. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 1045–1052.
(Online). Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/545056.545069
[31] J. L. Arcos, M. Esteva, P. Noriega, J. A. Rodr´ıguez-Aguilar, and
C. Sierra, “Engineering open environments with electronic institutions,”
Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 191–204, Mar. 2005.
(Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2004.11.019
[32] E. Steegmans, D. Weyns, T. Holvoet, and Y. Berbers, “A design
process for adaptive behavior of situated agents,” in Agent-Oriented
Software Engineering V, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
J. Odell, P. Giorgini, and J. M¨uller, Eds. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
2005, vol. 3382, pp. 109–125, 10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 8. (Online).
Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30578-1 8
[33] P. Braun, I. M¨uller, S. Geisenhainer, V. Schau, and W. Rossak, “A
service-oriented software architecture for mobile agent toolkits,” Engineering
of Computer-Based Systems, IEEE International Conference
on the, vol. 0, p. 550, 2004.
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:54256", author = "Thomas M. Prinz Wilhelm R. Rossak and Kai Gebhardt", title = "AGENTMAP: A Conceptual Meta-Model of Interacting Simulations", abstract = "A straightforward and intuitive combination of single simulations into an aggregated master-simulation is not trivial. There are lots of problems, which trigger-specific difficulties during the modeling and execution of such a simulation. In this paper we identify these problems and aim to solve them by mapping the task to the field of multi agent systems. The solution is a new meta-model named AGENTMAP, which is able to mitigate most of the problems and to support intuitive modeling at the same time. This meta-model will be introduced and explained on basis of an example from the e-commerce domain.
", keywords = "Multi Agent System, Agent-based Simulation, Distributed Systems, Meta-models.", volume = "6", number = "11", pages = "1334-8", }
