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Verification and Validation of Agent-Based Simulations Using Approximate Model Checking

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Book cover Multi-Agent-Based Simulation XIV (MABS 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8235))

Abstract

This paper focusses on the usefulness of approximate probabilistic model checking for the internal and external validation of large-scale agent-based simulations. We describe the translation of typical validation criteria into a variant of linear time logic. We further present a prototypical version of a highly customisable approximate model checker which we used in a range of experiments to verify properties of large scale models whose complexity prevents them from being amenable to conventional explicit or symbolic model checking.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Hérault’s paper, this parameter is referred to as \(diagram\) [11].

  2. 2.

    Note that, in the presence of finite traces, the duality between invariants and negated reachability properties does not hold.

  3. 3.

    We assume the following mapping: \(0 \rightarrow Susceptible, 1 \rightarrow Infected, 2 \rightarrow Recovered\).

  4. 4.

    Alternatively, the property can also be expressed as follows: \(\mathbb {P}_{=0}(\mathbf {F}(health(x)=0 \wedge \mathbf {X}(health(x)=2) ))\)

  5. 5.

    http://pyparsing.wikispaces.com

  6. 6.

    At the time of writing, each computing unit is equivalent to a 1.0–1.2 GHz 2007 Opteron or 2007 Xeon processor.

  7. 7.

    By ‘recovering’ we mean returning to a state in which at most 1% are infected.

  8. 8.

    For example, a path could be labelled with multiple atomic propositions in a single iteration.

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Herd, B., Miles, S., McBurney, P., Luck, M. (2014). Verification and Validation of Agent-Based Simulations Using Approximate Model Checking. In: Alam, S., Parunak, H. (eds) Multi-Agent-Based Simulation XIV. MABS 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8235. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54783-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54783-6_4

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