Modelling and simulation of complex problems has become an established ‘third pillar’ of science, complemen- tary to theory and experimentation. The multi-agent approach to modelling allows complex systems to be constructed in such as way as to add complexity from understanding at an individual level (i.e. a bottom-up approach). This approach is extremely powerful in a wide range of domains as diverse as computational biology to economics and physics. Whilst multi-agent modelling provides a natural and intuitive method to model systems the computational cost of performing large simulations is much greater than for top-down, system level alternatives.
Read more