Swarm Development Group
Encyclopedia
The Swarm Development Group is an American non-profit organization to advance the development of complex adaptive system
-oriented agent-based modeling (ABM) tools initiated at the Santa Fe Institute
(SFI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. It was formed in 1999 by a group of multidisciplinary scientists, researchers, and software developers, led by Chris Langton. Langton was also the founder of the emerging field of research called artificial life
.
was completed by Chris Langton (SFI), Roger Burkhart (John Deere), Nelson Minar (SFI), Manor Askenazi (SFI), Glen Ropella (SFI), Marcus Daniels (SFI), and Alex Lancaster (SFI). Since that time, many hundreds of people around the world have contributed to the continued open source development of the suite of Swarm ABM tools.
The Swarm Simulation System, or Swarn as the organization's suite of open-source software tools are called, serves as a platform for agent-based modeling. Swarm is available for free and use, covered by the GNU General Public License
.
SwarmFest 2007 was held at DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems, in downtown Chicago, Illinois. A wide-range of academic, corporate, and government organizations are represented at SwarmFest.
SwarmFest 2008 was held at Northwestern Memorial Hospital/Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Swarmfest 2008 had special focus areas on agent based modeling in Systems Biology
, and the implementation of agent based model
s in high-performance computing
environments.
Since 2009, SwarmFest has been held at the Santa Fe Complex in Santa Fe, New Mexico
.
. Agent-based modeling seeks to replicate these complexities and adaptations in computational environments where these interactive emergent behaviors can be analyzed multi-dimensionally. By defining and assigning agencies reflective of prescribed behaviors, known or estimated, to active software agents in a computer simulation
, scientists can approximate experimental results not possible in natural temporal frameworks.
Swarm and other agent-based modeling platforms afford scientists the opportunity to conduct and visualize
experiments in these synthetic macro and microenvironments for testing scientific theories, natural data sets, and other analyses while free of pressing constraints like time, volume, hazards, or many other parameters.
In these and other applications, the system of interest is simulated by capturing the behavior of individual agents and their interconnections. Agent-based modeling tools can be used to test how changes in individual behaviors will affect the overall, emergent system behavior. (This section is copied from Wikipedia: Agent-based model):
Complex adaptive system
Complex adaptive systems are special cases of complex systems. They are complex in that they are dynamic networks of interactions and relationships not aggregations of static entities...
-oriented agent-based modeling (ABM) tools initiated at the Santa Fe Institute
Santa Fe Institute
The Santa Fe Institute is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social systems.The Institute houses a...
(SFI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. It was formed in 1999 by a group of multidisciplinary scientists, researchers, and software developers, led by Chris Langton. Langton was also the founder of the emerging field of research called artificial life
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
.
Overview
Early development work on SwarmSwarm (simulation)
Swarm is the name of a multi-agent simulation package, useful for simulating the interaction of agents and their emergent collective behaviour. Swarm was initially developed at the Santa Fe Institute in the mid-1990s, and since 1999 has been maintained by the non-profit Swarm Development...
was completed by Chris Langton (SFI), Roger Burkhart (John Deere), Nelson Minar (SFI), Manor Askenazi (SFI), Glen Ropella (SFI), Marcus Daniels (SFI), and Alex Lancaster (SFI). Since that time, many hundreds of people around the world have contributed to the continued open source development of the suite of Swarm ABM tools.
The Swarm Simulation System, or Swarn as the organization's suite of open-source software tools are called, serves as a platform for agent-based modeling. Swarm is available for free and use, covered by the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Swarmfest
The Swarm Development Group holds an annual conference, Swarmfest during May, June, or July each summer – typically hosted by a different research university each year. Developers, users, and researchers gather to present research papers and discuss the state of Swarm and other agent-based modeling platforms like RePast (University of Chicago) and Ascape (Brookings).SwarmFest 2007 was held at DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems, in downtown Chicago, Illinois. A wide-range of academic, corporate, and government organizations are represented at SwarmFest.
SwarmFest 2008 was held at Northwestern Memorial Hospital/Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Swarmfest 2008 had special focus areas on agent based modeling in Systems Biology
Systems biology
Systems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...
, and the implementation of agent based model
Agent based model
An agent-based model is a class of computational models for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents with a view to assessing their effects on the system as a whole...
s in high-performance computing
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
environments.
Since 2009, SwarmFest has been held at the Santa Fe Complex in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
Scientific applications
The inter-connected, adaptive complexities found in the natural world provide living laboratories for scientists to explore and comprehend endless facets that comprise the whole of realityReality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
. Agent-based modeling seeks to replicate these complexities and adaptations in computational environments where these interactive emergent behaviors can be analyzed multi-dimensionally. By defining and assigning agencies reflective of prescribed behaviors, known or estimated, to active software agents in a computer simulation
Computer simulation
A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...
, scientists can approximate experimental results not possible in natural temporal frameworks.
Swarm and other agent-based modeling platforms afford scientists the opportunity to conduct and visualize
Scientific visualization
Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science according to Friendly "primarily concerned with the visualization of three-dimensional phenomena , where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps...
experiments in these synthetic macro and microenvironments for testing scientific theories, natural data sets, and other analyses while free of pressing constraints like time, volume, hazards, or many other parameters.
Commercial applications
Agent-based models have been used since the mid-1990s to solve a variety of business and technology problems. Examples of applications include:- supply chain optimizationSupply chain optimizationSupply chain optimization is the application of processes and tools to ensure the optimal operation of a manufacturing and distribution supply chain. This includes the optimal placement of inventory within the supply chain, minimizing operating costs...
and logisticsLogisticsLogistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
; - modeling of consumer behavior, including word of mouthWord of mouthWord of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
and social networkSocial networkA social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
effects; - distributed computingDistributed computingDistributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
; - workforce managementWorkforce managementWorkforce management encompasses all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even part of ERP systems...
; - traffic managementTraffic managementTraffic management may refer to* Bandwidth management in computer networkingRoad traffic management in road transport* In combination with "policies", a black box of governmental or commercial policies...
; and - portfolio managementInvestment managementInvestment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...
.
In these and other applications, the system of interest is simulated by capturing the behavior of individual agents and their interconnections. Agent-based modeling tools can be used to test how changes in individual behaviors will affect the overall, emergent system behavior. (This section is copied from Wikipedia: Agent-based model):