Agent-based framework for simulation of networked systems with adaptive modularity

Abstract

This Bachelor Thesis aims to draw a first approach for building a highly versatile tool to simulate systems with adaptive modularity, that is, systems that are able to adapt their functional capabilities according to the type of mission or scanario they are involved into. The simulation framework follows an agent-based strategy, in which several agents with different roles (launcher, scenario, active agent) manage to accomplish missions. These missions consist of performing certain tasks of target observation in one or more spectral region (e.g, microwave, infrared, visible) with a certain set of temporal requirements and a score value. The goal of the system is to perform as many high-value observations as possible. If certain tasks require more requirements than a single agent can provide, it can build a coalition with other agents, which do carry enough resources for performing the task. These coalitions are temporal associations of agents that can be split or merged as considered by them, thus allowing the agents to adapt their modularity for better performing their mission. The main achievements attained in this thesis can be divided in two blocks: on the one hand, we have developed a support program using an open source Java-based platform that executes simulations upon a large set of possible scenarios (Turtlekit ), displays what agents are doing in real-time in a particular simulated case and stores their performance data for its posterior analysis; on the other hand, a widely known decentralized task allocation algorithm (Coupled Constraint Consensus Bundle-Based Algorithm, CCBBA) has been implemented and modiffied as necessary for handling speciffic constraints regarding adaptive modularity.