Agent-based modeling resources

Question

I would like to know what kind of toolkits, languages, libraries exist for agent-based modeling and what are the pros/cons of them?

Some examples of what I am thinking of are Swarm, Repast, and MASS.

Answer 1

I got introduced to Dramatis at OSCON 2008, it is an Agent based framework for Ruby and Python. The author (Steven Parkes) has some references in his blog and is working at running a language agnostic Actors discussion list.

This page at erights.org has a great set of references to, what I think are, the core papers that introduce and explore the Actors message passing model.

Answer 2

you should also have a look at Madkit and Turtlekit

Answer 3

I also recommend NetLogo. It is an IDE+environment+programming language based on logo (which was based on Lisp) which lets you build multi-agent models extremely fast. I have found that I can reproduce (simulate) algorithms from research articles in a couple of hours, algorithms that would have taken weeks to implement with other libraries.

You can check some of my models at this page.

Answer 4

I found a survey from June 2009 that answer your question:

Survey of Agent Based Modelling and Simulation Tools

Au. R.J. Allan

Abstract Agent Based Modelling and Simulation is a computationally demanding technique based on discrete event simulation and having its origins in genetic algorithms. It is a powerful technique for simulating dynamic complex systems and observing “emergent” behaviour. The most common uses of ABMS are in social simulation and optimisation problems, such as traffic flow and supply chains. We will investigate other uses in computational science and engineering. ABMS has been adapted to run on novel architectures such as GPGPU (e.g. nVidia using CUDA). Argonne National Laboratory have a Web site on Exascale ABMS and have run models on the IBM BlueGene with funding from the SciDAC Programme. We plan to organise a workshop on ABMS methodolgies and applications in summer of 2009. Keywords agent based modelling, Archaeology

http://epubs.cclrc.ac.uk/bitstream/3637/ABMS.pdf

Answer 5

There is also a pretty good link in wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison%5Fof%5Fagent-based%5Fmodeling%5Fsoftware

Answer 6

PHP and Java developers should take a look at KATO.

Answer 7

On the modelling side, have a look at FAML, an agent-oriented modelling language. This is a pretty academic paper, but it may help depending on your interests: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freepre%5Fabs%5Fall.jsp?isnumber=4359463&arnumber=4967615