Agent-based Meta-models

Abstract

The agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) community has long recognized a need for concise, complete, and implementation-neutral representations of agent-models, and for modeling tools that do not require significant computer programming experience. We discuss earlier efforts to address these needs, arguing that proposed representations were typically too high-level and did not cover behavior. It may be that these weaknesses were insurmountable at the time—and that it is only now, with the availability of relatively mature Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) and Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) tools that these needs may finally be met. We justify this claim by identifying significant issues modelers face in using General Purpose Languages (GPLs) for agent-based models and how these issues might be overcome by using DSLs. We describe the specific tools we intend to employ in that effort and how we plan to use those tools, and we propose a general meta-model for ABMS.