Modeling and design of an agent-based micro-simulation of the Swiss highway network

Abstract

Multiagent simulations can be elegantly modeled and designed by enhancing the role of the environment in which agents evolve, called the agent environment. In particular, the agent environment may have the role of a governing infrastructure that regulates with laws or norms the actions taken by the agents. The focus of modeling and design is thus shifted from a subjective view of agents towards a more objective view of the whole multiagent system. In this paper, we apply the idea of a governing environment to model and design a multi-agent system for a micro-simulation of the Swiss highway network. The goal of the simulation is to show how traffic jams and accordion phenomena may be handled with appropriate local regulations on speed limits. A natural modeling would give segments the capacity to regulate the speed based on observed local events. We developed the simulation platform from scratch in order to accommodate our design choices and a realistic complexity. This paper presents in details our modeling and design choices, and first experimental results. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.