Pragmatic Insights - Live UIs for Agent-based Modelling in Pharo ESUG 2017 - IWST 2017

1. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover)
International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies, 2017, Maribor, Slovenia
Pragmatic Insights:
Live UIs for Agent-based
Modelling in Pharo
Jigyasa Grover, Nick Papoulias, Serge Stinckwich & Pierre Bommel

2. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 2
Modelling
&
Simulation

3. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 3ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover)
✓ Agent Based Modelling (ABM) & Object Oriented Paradigm
✓ Concise Analysis of (a few popular) present day ABM platforms
— MobiDyC — NetLogo
— GAMA — CORMAS
✓ Our Work !
Developing spatial interface for CORMAS in Pharo
— Implementation Details
— Case Study: The ECEC Model

4. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 4
To enable simulation of actions of heterogeneous entities &
interactions in a collective spatial environment

5. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 5
Common uses of ABM & simulations comprise social or
biological system simulations such as crowd behaviour, urban
simulation or disease propagation.

6. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 6
ABMs provide explicit views to:
* follow each agent individually
* understand consequences of
multiple interactions in system as
a whole
Micro vs Macro : Point of Views

7. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 7
Significant features looked forward to:
・Dynamical evolution
・Graphical interface
・Live-exploration
・Time saving simulation rendering
・Flexibility to mould the source code
・Enhanced scalability

8. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 8
One of the most important
components of these systems is
spatial user interface especially
for end-users.
It allows the users to interact with
simulations in real-time to vividly
visualise & partially control the
evolution.

9. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 9
Let’s analyse some agent-based modelling systems namely
MobiDyC, NetLogo, GAMA and CORMAS and shed
some light on their positive aspects and limitations in terms of
programming flexibility, extensibility & more.

10. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 10
ABM
Systems
Pros Cons
MobiDyc
Multi-platform tool
Flexible architecture
Elementary GUI for beginners
Enterprise tool
Domain specific
Space & time computation constraints
NetLogo
Free & Open Source environment
Lucid extensibility with third-party apps
Partial compilation to JVM bytecode
Single instance, single core
Inability to model information rich
systems
Limited object-oriented support
GAMA
Open source tool
Support for 3D modelling & visualisation
Easy partnership with third-party apps
Complex GUI
Support for spatially explicit ABMs
Specific to GIS data models
CORMAS
Open-source & free software
Based on MVC architecture
Detailed sensitivity analysis
Comprehensive spatial interfaces
Based on proprietary language
Limited extensibility with third-party
apps
Opaque model structure

11. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 11
MobiDyC CORMAS

12. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 12
Rationale behind this choice is to
allow modern re-imagination that
can take advantage of
developments in:
Agile Visualization
Moldable tools
Domain-specific languages (DSLs)

13. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 13
Our spatial interface for CORMAS in Pharo
CORMAS currently uses Cincom® VisualWorks®
Our effort is to make CORMAS open-source by porting it
from VisualWorks® to Pharo.
Recreating the platform using:
Roassal visualisation engine, Spec UI framework, Glamorous Toolkit

14. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 14
The ECEC Model
Sample project in CORMAS; inspired from a paper by Pepper &
Smuts, "Evolution of Cooperation in an Ecological Context".
The model consists of a 2D grid, containing two kinds of entities:
plants and foragers.

15. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 15
The ECEC Model
Main Idea: Study of the survival of two populations of foragers that depends on
biomass availability of plants & initial spatial configuration of the landscape.

16. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 16
CORMAS
Pharo

17. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 17
Roassal Visualisation
Engine
Instance of CORMAS
Model initialised in
RTGridLayout.
Cells of grid defined as
RTBox, each of a given
dimension.
Each cell element given a
different shade, varying
according to attribute value.

18. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 18
Running simulation with cells changing colours in real-time with shades
being dependent on an attribute, for example on biomass in ECEC Model .

19. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 19
Spec UI Framework
defaultSpec is used as a pre-selected method to put into a columnar layout:
・Menu or the toolbar built using Spec MenuModel,
・Diagram containing the CORMAS Model from Roassal RTView
・TabManager Model which gathers multiple tabs

20. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 20
Initially, a SpecToolbar is
set up by adding basic
window with a
CORMAS Model
diagram & a
MenuGroupModel.
Separate execution
panel is created with
Run, Stop and Reset
buttons.

21. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 21
With flow, Load menu is detailed by allowing loading of different
CORMAS Models along-with execution panel.

22. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 22
Visualisation sub-menu made
is generic by selecting
methods based on their
protocols.
Sub-menu provides
possibilities to picturize data
for various entities & PoVs.
Similar method for entities to
view real-time information,
attributes are collected via
modalClasses dictionary.

23. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 23
UI built so far supports probe visualisations & rudimentary
simultaneous views.

24. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 24
Glamorous Toolkit
Customised GTInspector;
independent of model -
directly extending it in
CORMAS-Core package in
super-class SpatialEntityCell.
Each child-class inherited
implements its own methods
for id, state, etc. & thus shows
specific values corresponding
to the instance.

25. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 25
Presenting cell information
(here: biomass) using
customised inspector
initiated on onHover event.
Presenting detailed cell
information (here: id,
coordinates, etc.) using
customised inspector
initiated on onClick event.

26. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 26

27. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 27
Roassal, SpecUI & GTools has provided a good base to overcome the
short-comings of present day ABMs in an Open Source
environment.
Leveraged the above to support multiple visualisation perspectives, run-
time probing of simulations along-with providing appreciable
programming flexibility.

28. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 28
Brief analysis spells out need to explore lively simulations to interact
with agents in simulation effortlessly in real-time.
ABM platforms require development of extensions & plug-ins
compatible with third-party applications for better
interoperability.
~ fin ~

29. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 29
Improving GUI (zoom & multi-windowing), including missing
features (time-travel) and designing better techniques for data analysis
& visualisation.
Reducing coding requirements, future developments focus on design
of embedded DSLs & UIs to automatically generate partial code.

30. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 30
github.com/jigyasa-grover/CORMAS-Pharo

31. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 31
Follow-up questions.
Ideas for improvements.
Chat.

32. ESUG IWST 2017 Jigyasa Grover (@jigyasa_grover) 32
@jigyasa_grover
grover.jigyasa1@gmail.com
github.com/jigyasa-grover
jigyasagrover.wordpress.com