ABSTRACT: The Swarm Simulation System and Individual-based Modeling
by David Hiebeler
Swarm is a simulation environment which facilitates development and
experimentation with simulations involving a large number of agents
behaving and interacting within a dynamic environment. Many of the
computer simulations performed by researchers in various disciplines
rest upon a very similar computational foundation. These researchers
often invest significant effort into developing the basic platform to
support their simulations. A prototype of the Swarm simulation system
was developed as an attempt to provide a general-purpose tool for
building these simulations. The Swarm system provides a framework
that will allow people to only write code describing the details of
their specific problem, and then gain easy access to user-interface,
simulation management, and analysis tools. This paper will provide an
overview of the Swarm system and discuss some of the general
advantages and disadvantages of using individual-based models.
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Last modified: Mon Sep 4 09:15:52 1995