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Dr. Paul M. Torrens, Center for Urban Science + Progress, New York University |
Validating agent-based behavioral geography
Project overview | Eye candy | Support | Related groups |
Project overview |
Like all models, agent-based simulations are used to abstract from a more complicated reality, or to develop synthetic laboratories for exploring systems that are not amenable to investigation on the ground. Unlike most models, however, agent-based simulations allow for an unprecedented degree of detail to be introduced to a simulation. This makes it difficult to assess the fit of simulations to the real-world, to plans, to policies, or to theories. Traditional methods for validating simulations are often ill-suited to agent-based models, because of the complexity of the systems that they represent, and related problems of handling feedback, emergence, non-linearity, path-dependence, self-organization, scaling, and so on. These issues can become particularly problematic when dealing with socio-behavioral systems, for which distributions, truths, laws, and regularties are often unknown, fuzzy, or simply absent. We are developing a set of methods, and related tools, for validating agent-based models of behavioral geography, based on the spatio-temporal properties of information flow in models of complex systems, and of the spacing and timing of agent behavior in simulation. This builds on our efforts to couple agent-based models and space-time GIS, and related projects to examine ways to accelerate agent-based computation. |
Eye candy |
The figure above illustrates movement generated by Lévy flights, which scale the relative frequency and length of movement through space and time. This is the basis of some of our metrics, which examine the fractal scaling of behavioral geography. |
The figure above illustrates a relative analysis of several movement paths through a constrained space. Other metrics in our toolkit use time geography as the basis for measurement. |
Support |
Torrens, P.M; Ghanem, Roger; Kevrekidis, Yannis (2010-2011). "Accelerating innovation in agent-based simulations: Application to complex socio-behavioral phenomena". National Science Foundation (Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems) | |
Torrens, P.M. (2007-2012) “CAREER: Exploring the dynamics of individual pedestrian and crowd behavior in dense urban settings: a computational approach”. National Science Foundation (Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER); Geography & Regional Science/ Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics) | |
Related groups | |
GAMMA group at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
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Robot motion control |
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Human behavior in critical scenarios |
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Modeling riots |
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A toolkit for measuring sprawl
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Simulating crowd behavior |
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Wi-Fi geography |
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Simulating sprawl |
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