Title: Modelling and simulation of social systems with INGENIAS

Authors: Juan Pavon, Candelaria Sansores, Jorge J. Gomez-Sanz

Addresses: Dep. Ingenieria del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, c/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain. ' Dep. Ingenieria del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, c/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain. ' Dep. Ingenieria del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, c/ Profesor Jose Garcia Santesmases s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: Most agent-based simulation toolkits are based on the Java programming language. This makes their use difficult for social scientists, who are usually not skilled in computer programming. However, agent modelling concepts are not unlike those which could be used for the modelling of social systems. This assumption is considered in proposing the use of a graphical agent-oriented language for the specification of social simulation models, and for transforming (automatically) these models to code for an agent-based simulation toolkit. In this manner, a social scientist could prepare social models in a more convenient way, and execute simulations on existing simulation toolkits, getting results back in terms of the model. This framework is built with a set of agent development tools, specifically, the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK), which provides a customisable model editor and modules for automatic code generation.

Keywords: agent-based simulation; agent-based modelling; ABM; social simulation; agent development tools; model transformation; model-driven development; INGENIAS development kit; IDK; multi-agent systems; MAS; agent-based systems; social systems; social science; social models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOSE.2008.017315

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2008 Vol.2 No.2, pp.196 - 221

Published online: 26 Feb 2008 *

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