CppyABM: An open‐source agent‐based modeling library to integrate C++ and Python

Abstract

Agent-based modeling (ABM) has been extensively used to study the collective behavior of systems emerging from the interaction of numerous independent individuals called agents. Python and C++ are commonly used for ABM thanks to their unique features; the latter offers superior performance while the former provides ease-of-use and rich libraries in data science, visualization, and machine learning. We present the framework CppyABM that unifies these features by providing identical ABM semantic and development styles in both C++ and Python as well as the essential binding tools to expose a certain functionality from C++ to Python. The binding feature allows users to tailor and further extend a type or function within Python while it is originally defined in C++. Using CppyABM, users can choose either C++ or Python depending on their expertise and the specialty of the model or combine them to benefit from the advantages of both languages simultaneously. We provide showcases of CppyABM capabilities using several examples in computational biology, ecology, and virology. These examples are implemented in different formats using either C++ or Python or a combination of both to provide a comparison between the performance of implementation scenarios. The results of the example show a clear performance advantage of the models entirely or partly implemented in C++ compared to purely Python-based implementations.

FLAME GPU 2: A framework for flexible and performant agent based simulation on GPUs

“…[27][28][29] There have been other recent works which focus on software engineering challenges related to agent based simulation tools, in particular making software accessible in high level languages such as Python. 30,31 This article is unique in attempting to address the software engineering challenge of providing a general purpose simulator capable of utilising GPU acceleration. A significant challenge of GPU accelerated programming is ensuring flexibility without sacrificing performance.…”

“…Related work has focused on high performance implementations of agent based simulation tools within distributed environments, 2,5 or alternatively has sought to accelerate simulations within particular domains or for specific models 27‐29 . There have been other recent works which focus on software engineering challenges related to agent based simulation tools, in particular making software accessible in high level languages such as Python 30,31 . This article is unique in attempting to address the software engineering challenge of providing a general purpose simulator capable of utilising GPU acceleration.…”

Experimenting with Agent-Based Model Simulation Tools

“…CppyABM [45] is a library for ABM development that combines the efficiency of C++ with the availability of Python libraries and exploits CMake to be platform-free. CppyABM offers all functionalities in both languages, enabling users to choose their preferred programming language.…”