Model-driven agent-based simulation: Procedural semantics of a MAIA model

Journal article (2014)

Authors

Amineh Ghorbani Energy and Industry
G.P.J. Dijkema Energy and Industry
P.W.G. Bots Policy Analysis - TPM
H Alderwereld External organisation
V Dignum External organisation
Research Group
Energy and Industry
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

27-08-2014

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Research Group

Energy and Industry

Abstract

Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) is highly instrumental for studying socio-technical systems. MAIA – Modelling Agents using Institutional Analysis – is an ABMS modelling framework that formalises social sciences knowledge. It enables handling the complexity of large complex systems, allows collaborative model development and the reuse of model components when building simulations. We detail the procedural semantics for transforming a MAIA model into an executable simulation. Its evaluation through various case studies of model development and simulation is described. The MAIA meta-model is a declarative language to conceptualise an ABM. A model description in MAIA thus provides sufficient information to translate it into a simulation model – it defines the agents, their decision-making process and their actions, all within an institutional and physical context, to affect system states that are defined in the MAIA model. A modeller can use MAIA to specify and document her model and to build her simulation by using MAIA’s semi-automatic code generation option.