PanSim + Sim-2APL: A Framework for Large-Scale Distributed Simulation with Complex Agents

Abstract

Agent-based simulation is increasingly being used to model social phenomena involving large numbers of agents. However, existing agent-based simulation platforms severely limit the kinds of the social phenomena that can modeled, as they do not support large scale simulations involving agents with complex behaviors. In this paper, we present a scalable agent-based simulation framework that supports modeling of complex social phenomena. The framework integrates a new simulation platform that exploits distributed computer architectures, with an extension of a multi-agent programming technology that allows development of complex deliberative agents. To show the scalability of our framework, we briefly describe its application to the development of a model of the spread of COVID-19 involving complex deliberative agents in the US state of Virginia.

A framework for modeling human behavior in large-scale agent-based epidemic simulations

“…This paper significantly extends and integrates our previous work, 38,39 where we presented a preliminary version of the framework and a COVID-19 simulation experiment, respectively. In this paper, we describe an improved version of the framework that does not suffer from communication overhead issues highlighted in our preliminary experiments, 38 and supports simulations with ~8 million agents.…”

“…This paper significantly extends and integrates our previous work, 38,39 where we presented a preliminary version of the framework and a COVID-19 simulation experiment, respectively. In this paper, we describe an improved version of the framework that does not suffer from communication overhead issues highlighted in our preliminary experiments, 38 and supports simulations with ~8 million agents. Moreover, we extend the simulation experiment 39 in two ways: (a) we provide a formal characterization of how normative reasoning takes place in the deliberation cycle of the Sim-2APL agents; (b) we refine and recalibrate the model of norm-reasoning agents, and present more realistic results quantifying the effects of normative interventions in the state of Virginia.…”

“…Note that our platform is distinct from a similarly named platform that has recently been published. 40 Since our platform was presented earlier, 38,39 we have not changed the name in this paper. We then explain how the proposed simulation framework is used to design, develop, and calibrate a simulation experiment for COVID-19 regulations, and report on the strong and weak scalability of our proposed framework as well as the results of the conducted simulation experiments.…”

Quantifying the Effects of Norms on COVID-19 Cases Using an Agent-Based Simulation

“…PanSim synchronizes its instances across compute nodes by sharing only the data relating to agents visiting a location simulated on another node, ensuring all its instances remain synchronized throughout the simulation with minimal communication. Both the framework and experiments showing the scalability are described in detail in the companion paper [3].…”

“…We integrate this new library, Sim-2APL, with a new distributed agent-based simulation framework we call PanSim. This aspect of the work is presented in our companion paper [3]. In the current paper, we focus on the simulation design and evaluation.…”