Resolving conflicts between multiple competing agents in parallel simulations

Abstract

Agents within multi-agent simulation environments frequently compete for limited resources, requiring negotiation to resolve ‘conflict’. The negotiation process for resolving conflict often relies on a transactional or serial processes that complicates implementation within a parallel simulation framework. This paper demonstrates how transactional events to resolve competition can be implemented within a parallel simulation framework (FLAME GPU) as a series of iterative parallel agent functions. A sugarscape model where agents compete for space and a model requiring optimal assignment between two populations, the stable marriage problem, are demonstrated. The two case studies act as a building block for more general conflict resolution behaviours requiring negotiation between agents in a parallel simulation environment. Extensions to the FLAME GPU framework are described and performance results are provided to show scalability of the case studies on recent GPU hardware.