CI-EN: Enhancement of a Large-scale Multiagent Simulation Tool

基于代理的模拟是以复杂方式交互的许多独立参与者（人、机器人、动物、公司等）的软件模拟。例如，你可以模拟一群蚂蚁、一群鱼、一大群机器人共同建造一座房子、一座被中世纪大军围困的城市，或者在社交网络上传播城市传说。这类模拟应用于方方面面，从为送货机器人群构建软件，到了解疾病在第三世界贫民窟的传播，再到预测气候变化对人类迁移模式的影响。同样，这些模拟有助于工程和机器人、人工智能、生物和社会科学领域的研究人员和政策制定者。这样的模拟可以变得非常大，有大量的参与者。这个项目包括建立一个软件工具，以协助开发大规模的基于代理的模拟，这些模拟可能分布在许多独立的计算机上，并使它们能够轻松地将代理放置在地球上的模拟位置。同时，该工具将易于使用，为高中生和大学生。该项目将开发一种基于分布式代理的建模工具，用于构建大型模拟群体和代理群体。该项目增强了一个现有的、成功的开源Java多代理仿真库MASON。MASON被设计成在一台机器上运行；但增强版也将允许在许多机器上发布。增强的工具还将包括在地理信息系统（GIS）中嵌入代理的设施、模型优化和自动化、针对Java虚拟机的替代编程语言的接口、统计设施、内部测试和验证以及与软件工具的集成。这一改进不仅将为社会科学、生物学和工程学的研究人员提供分布式模拟设施，而且还将改进MASON的图形界面和语言设施，使其更容易作为教学工具使用。

An agent-based simulation is a software simulation of many independent actors (people, robots, animals, companies, etc.) interacting in complex ways. For example, one might build a simulation of a swarm of ants, a school of fish, a large group of robots collectively building a house, a city of people under siege by a large medieval army, or the spread of urban legends over a social network. These kinds of simulations are used for everything from building software for swarms of delivery robots, to understanding the spread of disease in third-world slums, to predicting the impact of climate change on human migration patterns. Similarly, these simulations help researchers and policy makers in engineering and robotics, in artificial intelligence, and in the biological and social sciences. Such simulations can get very large, with large numbers of actors. This project involves building a software tool to assist in the development of large-scale agent-based simulations spread over potentially many separate computers, and to make it easy for them to place their agents in simulated locations on the Earth. At the same time the tool will be easy to use for high school and undergraduate students.The project will develop a distributed agent-based modeling tool for constructing large simulations of swarms and groups of agents. The project enhances an existing, successful open-source Java multiagent simulation library called MASON. MASON is designed to run on a single machine; but the enhanced version will also allow distribution over many machines. The enhanced tool will also include facilities for embedding agents in geographical information systems (GIS), model optimization and automation, interfaces for alternative programming languages targeting the Java Virtual Machine, statistics facilities, internal testing and verification, and integration with software tools. The enhancement will not only provide a distributed simulation facility for researchers in the social sciences, biology, and engineering, but will also improve on MASON's graphical interface and language facilities to make it easier to use as a teaching tool.