From: address@hidden <address@hidden>
Subject: Modelling Digest, Vol 50, Issue 1
To: address@hidden
Date: Friday, September 12, 2008, 1:15 PM
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Today's Topics:
1. The Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS) released
(Laszlo Gulyas)
2. Ascape 5.1.0 (Miles Parker)
3. Asking for help ( ??? )
4. Re: Asking for help (Yohan PANNET)
5. Re: Asking for help (address@hidden)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:12:39 +0200 (CEST)
From: "Laszlo Gulyas" <address@hidden>
Subject: [Swarm-Modelling] The Multi-Agent Simulation Suite
(MASS)
released
To: address@hidden
Message-ID:
<address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
AITIA International Inc is pleased to announce the first
public release of
the Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS). MASS is a toolset
of user-friendly
software components for writing agent-based and
participatory simulations,
creating visualizations and experiments, and for analyzing
simulation data.
MASS (including the components FABLES, MEME, and PET) is
available for
_free_ download from
http://mass.aitia.ai/ . Please try it out and send us bug
reports or other
suggestions and comments at address@hidden .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION SUITE
The Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS) consists of four
major components
built around a simulation core. The components include:
-- the Functional Agent-Based Language for Simulations
(FABLES), an
easy-to-use programming language for agent-based
simulations and its
Eclipse-based integrated development environment. FABLES
requires minimal
programming skills and lets modelers create concise
definitions of their
models, similar in style to model descriptions in published
papers.
-- the Charting Package (CP), a rich set of dynamic charts
and
visualizations to display simulation output, accompanied by
easy-to-use
wizards that bring the definition of any chart only a few
mouse clicks away.
CP also comes with a graphical editor to pick from a rich
set of descriptive
statistics to specify the data to be charted.
-- the Model Exploration Module (MEME) is a tool that
enables designing and
orchestrating simulation experiments, helps managing their
results and
supports their analysis. MEME has two distinct set of
functionalities. The
first is concerned with generating the data, the second is
with analyzing
it.
MEME provides a Parameter Sweeper wizard that lets the user
interactively
define the parameter regions to explore, together with the
data to be
recorded. (For the latter purposes, an interactive
grpahical editor to pick
from a rich set of descriptive statistics and other useful
constructs is
also available.) The experiments defined with the Parameter
Sweeper wizard
can be run on a single computer, on a cluster of computers,
or on
computational grids (using the QosCosGrid middleware).
Moreover, the
advanced functions of the Parameter Sweeper include support
for various
"IntelliSweep" methods, i.e., advanced simulation
designs that can save on
the number of runs without compromizing the significance of
the results.
(Many of these methods are based on the Design Of
Experiments, DoE,
literature on the statistics of classic experimental
sciences.)
MEME also provides a set of tools to collect, manage and
analyze simulation
results. At the base of these is MEME's Results
Database that stores data
created by various versions of different models, possibly
coming in several
batches. MEME makes the navigation among these clean and
easy, flexibly
dealing with the unconveniences of missing data or
mismatching variable
lists of different batch runs. MEME also provides wizards
to process the
collected data, by filtering out rows or columns, by
aggregating several
rows (e.g., as a result of filtered-out variables), by
deriving new
variables using simple formuli or descriptive statistics,
and by more
advanced restructuring operations. In general, MEME
provides modelers with
the common pre-processing operations needed to re-format
their results data
for analysis. MEME is not a competitor of professional
statistical packages
like SPSS or STATA. Rather it is intended as a helper tool
for those.
Therefore, the processed data can be convieniently exported
from MEME. In
order to help previewing your output, MEME is integrated
with the Charting
Package, thus providing modelers with the option of quickly
plotting their
data in various formats.
-- the Participatory Extension (PET) is a tool to
web-enable agent-based
models and to optionally transform them to participatory
simulations, where
human subjects control some of the agents via the
world-wide web. PET is a
multi-user environment, based on a dedicated network
server. It is intended
as an educational and/or laboratory tool. Therefore, it has
two distinct
user roles. The first is that of the 'teacher' or
'lab director' who can set
up the environment for the 'students' or the
'subjects'. The teacher
determines what _model_families_ (i.e., simulation
programs) are available
on the PET server, she configures the _models_ available to
the students
(i.e., with what specific agent composition, with what
parameter values
fixed and what values to be set by the students, etc.). The
students, on the
other hand, enter via a simpler user interface that lists
the pre-configured
models available to them. Depending on the settings by the
teacher, students
may be able to start their own _simulation_ copies, or can
join to watch the
progress of the simulation initiated by someone else (e.g.,
by the teacher).
The teacher/lab director may also decide to make some
agents in the model
'controllable', which means that students
(subjects) joining the simulation
can take control over them. Students that control agents
are provided with a
special graphical user interface that conveys the
information available to
the agent and provides 'actions' by which they can
specify the agent's
behavior. (A rudimentary control interface, in which
actions are listed in
the form of web links, is automatically generated by PET
for any model. More
advanced interfaces can be provided by Java programming.)
In PET all
simulations are recorded and are available for future
playback, including
those containing human controlled agents.
RELATIONS TO OTHER SOFTWARE PACKAGES
The components of MASS are integrated, but behind the
scenes, they interact
via a central 'simulation core'. In the current
public release, this core is
Repast J 3.1. This means that all FABLES models are
compiled to Repast J.
(The source code is also available, so advanced users can
pick it up from
there and continue their work in Repast J / Java.)
The Parameter Sweeper of MEME expects Repast J models, thus
MEME's
functionality is open to regular Repast J users, in
addition to FABLES
modelers. (In principle, MEME can work with Repast models
without any
change. That is, even models that were written without MEME
in mind should
cause no problems.) Moreover, MEME's results management
and processing
functions work with the data, independent of their origin.
Therefore, these
functions can be used by any modeler, provided that the
data is available in
a text-based file format. (MEME has an advanced wizard to
support the import
of various text-based data formats.)
PET also works with Repast J models, so its functionality
is available, in
principle, to any Repast J modeler. (Some limitations may
exists, especially
if the model uses advanced, third party modules, e.g.,
visualizations -- but
the general rule is that PET can take any Repast J model,
even those written
without knowledge about PET.)
In future releases, MASS is expected to support further
simulation platforms
as well. MEME's Parameter Sweeper already has an about
70% support for
Repast Simphony (not available in the current release).
Within a year, the
Parameter Sweeper is expected to have full support for
Repast Simphony,
EMIL-S and NetLogo
LICENCE
The components of the Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS)
are available for
download free of charge under a non-exclusive licence
granted by AITIA
International Inc. However, the source code of the MASS
software is
proprietary, which is only available for purchase.
Nonetheless, AITIA
International Inc. is committed to provide continuing
support for MASS and
its users, independent of their purchase of the sources. In
the unlikely
case that providing this support ceases to be in agreement
with the
company's business targets, AITIA plans to move the
MASS source code into
the public domain.
Best regards,
-- Laszlo
--
dr. Guly?s L?szl? | Laszlo Gulyas, PhD
kutat?si igazgat? | dir. of research
AITIA International Zrt. | AITIA International Inc.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 16:24:20 -0700
From: Miles Parker <address@hidden>
Subject: [Swarm-Modelling] Ascape 5.1.0
To: Agent-based modeling <address@hidden>
Message-ID:
<address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed;
delsp=yes
..has just been released on sourceforge. http://
ascape.sourceforge.net. Its mostly a maintenance release
but includes
refactoring Swing dependencies out of core project and
improvements to
the runtime infrastructure among other things. I'm
obviously biased
but I can target anything so its easy to switch back and
forth and
I'm surprised to find that I still use Ascape for most
of my modeling
work; its light-weight, pretty fast, and robust. I'm
thinking about
some Ascape inspired efforts so would welcome any feedback
/ ideas /
wish-lists.
Miles T. Parker
Principal
Metascape, LLC
"Extraordinary Tools for Extraordinary Science"
address@hidden
http://metascapeabm.com
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:26:40 +0800
From: " ??? " <address@hidden>
Subject: [Swarm-Modelling] Asking for help
To: "modelling" <address@hidden>
Message-ID: <address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="gb2312"
Dear all:
When I am work through Charles Staelin's
'jSimpleBug' tutorial, which is provided at
http://eco83.econ.unito.it/swarm/materiale/cd/swarm_2.2_cd.iso,
I am having problems with the following three programs:
SimpleObserverBug, SimpleObserverBug2 and SimpleObserverBug
program.
For each program, the java files compile correctly, but
when the file 'StartSimpleBug' is run, the following
error is produced:Exception in thread "main"
java.lang.NullPointerException at
StartSimpleBug.main(StartSimpleBug.java:34).
Has anyone else experienced similar problems? I am
grateful if anyone tell me how to solve this problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon
EMail? address@hidden
Date? 2008-09-12
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:15:36 +0200
From: "Yohan PANNET"
<address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [Swarm-Modelling] Asking for help
To: "Agent-based modeling"
<address@hidden>
Message-ID:
<address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="gb2312"
Could you send your code? Especially StartSimpleBug.java.
2008/9/12 ??? <address@hidden>
> Dear all:
>
> When I am work through Charles Staelin's
'jSimpleBug' tutorial, which is
> provided at
http://eco83.econ.unito.it/swarm/materiale/cd/swarm_2.2_cd.iso
> ,
<http://eco83.econ.unito.it/swarm/materiale/jtutorial/JavaTutorial.zip,>I
am having problems with the following three programs:
SimpleObserverBug,
> SimpleObserverBug2 and SimpleObserverBug program.
>
> For each program, the java files compile correctly,
but when the file
> 'StartSimpleBug' is run, the following error
is produced:Exception in thread
> "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at
> StartSimpleBug.main(StartSimpleBug.java:34).
>
> Has anyone else experienced similar problems? I am
grateful if anyone
> tell me how to solve this problem.
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Leon
> EMail? address@hidden
> Date? 2008-09-12
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Modelling mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://www.swarm.org/mailman/listinfo/modelling
>
>
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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:15:50 +0800
From: "" <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [Swarm-Modelling] Asking for help
To: address@hidden
Message-ID: <address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
在您的来信中曾经提到:
>From: "Yohan PANNET"
<address@hidden>
>Reply-To: Agent-based modeling
<address@hidden>
>To: "Agent-based modeling"
<address@hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Swarm-Modelling] Asking for help
>Date:Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:15:36 +0200
>
>Could you send your code? Especially
StartSimpleBug.java.
>
>
>
>2008/9/12 李清清 <address@hidden>
>
>> Dear all:
>>
>> When I am work through Charles Staelin's
'jSimpleBug' tutorial, which is
>> provided at
http://eco83.econ.unito.it/swarm/materiale/cd/swarm_2.2_cd.iso
>> ,
<http://eco83.econ.unito.it/swarm/materiale/jtutorial/JavaTutorial.zip,>I
am
having problems with the following three programs:
SimpleObserverBug,
>> SimpleObserverBug2 and SimpleObserverBug program.
>>
>> For each program, the java files compile
correctly, but when the file
>> 'StartSimpleBug' is run, the following
error is produced:Exception in thread
>> "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at
>> StartSimpleBug.main(StartSimpleBug.java:34).
>>
>> Has anyone else experienced similar problems? I
am grateful if anyone
>> tell me how to solve this problem.
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Leon
>> EMail： address@hidden
>> Date： 2008-09-12
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Modelling mailing list
>> address@hidden
>> http://www.swarm.org/mailman/listinfo/modelling
>>
>>
>_______________________________________________
>Modelling mailing list
>address@hidden
>http://www.swarm.org/mailman/listinfo/modelling
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