Trustworthy Agent-Based Simulation: The Case for Domain-Specific Modelling Languages

Steffen Zschaler; Fiona Polack

doi:10.1007/s10270-023-01082-9

Trustworthy Agent-Based Simulation: The Case for Domain-Specific Modelling Languages

Steffen Zschaler, Fiona Polack

University of Hull

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

102 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Simulation is a key tool for researching complex system behaviour. Agent-based simulation has been applied across domains, such as biology, health, economics and urban sciences. However, engineering robust, efficient, maintainable, and reliable agent-based simulations is challenging. We present a vision for engineering agent simulations comprising a family of domain-specific modelling languages (DSMLs) that integrates core software engineering, validation and simulation experimentation. We relate the vision to examples of principled simulation, to show how the DSMLs would improve robustness, efficiency, and maintainability of simulations. Focusing on how to demonstrate the fitness for purpose of a simulator, the envisaged approach supports bi-directional transparency and traceability between the original domain understanding to the implementation, interpretation of results and evaluation of hypotheses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	455-470
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal on Software and Systems Modelling (SoSyM)
Volume	22
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-023-01082-9
Publication status	Published - 8 Feb 2023

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Trustworthy Agent-Based Simulation: The Case for Domain-Specific Modelling Languages

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