Going beyond BDI for agent-based simulation

Research in multi-agent systems has resulted in agent programming languages and logics that are used as a foundation for engineering multi-agent systems. Research includes reusable agent programming platforms for engineering agent systems with environments, agent behaviour, communication protocols and social behaviour, and work on verification.

Agent-based simulation is an approach for simulation that also uses the notion of agents. Although agent programming languages and logics are much less used in agent-based simulation, there are successful examples with agents designed according to the BDI paradigm, and work that combines agent-based simulation platforms with agent programming platforms.

This paper analyses and evaluates benefits of using agent programming languages and logics for agent-based simulation. In particular, the paper considers the use of agent programming languages and logics in a case study of simulating emergency care units.