System-of-Systems Engineering - Liophant Simulation

Agent-Based Behavioral Modeling• Agent Based Models are appropriate when [Bonabeau2002]:– Individual behavior is nonlinear and can be characterized bydiscrete decisions, thresholds, if-then rules, or nonlinearcoupling– Describing discontinuity in individual behavior is difficult withdifferential equations. For example, if a logistics officer ordersparts in batches, he may have a threshold for making partsrequests (rather than continuously demanding replacements forparts used)– History matters. Path-dependence, lagging responses, non-Markovian behavior, or temporal correlations including learningand adaptation are applicable to the system.– Averages are not good enough. Under certain conditions, smallfluctuations in a complex system can be amplified, so that thesystem is stable for incremental changes but unstable to largeperturbationsDeveloping Methods and Techniques for System of Systems EngineeringDr. Dimitri Mavris, dimitri.mavris@ae.gatech.edu34