@incollection{fdi:010079276,
  title = {{A} modelling language to represent and specify emerging structures in agent-based model},
  author = {{D}uc-{A}n {V}o and {D}rogoul, {A}lexis and {Z}ucker, {J}ean-{D}aniel and {T}uong-{V}inh {H}o},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{A}ll modellers have come across, one day, one of these popular toy agent-based models ({ABM}s), like '{A}nts', for instance, which depicts the appearance of pheromone trails built by simulated ants. {T}hey are simple, but representative of the way 'real', more complex, {ABM}s are designed: in addition to explicitly describe the individual entities used to represent the system, modellers make implicit references to abstractions corresponding to the emerging structures they are tracking in the simulations. {Y}et, these abstractions are not represented in the models themselves as first-class entities: they are either hidden in ex-post computations or only part of visualization tasks, as if an explicit representation could somehow damage the processes at work in their emergence. {T}his clearly constitutes an obstacle to the development of multi-level models, where emergence is likely to occur at different levels of abstraction of the system: if some of these levels are not represented in the models, the emergence of higher-level structures is not likely to be observed. {T}his paper describes a modelling language that allows a modeller to represent and specify emerging structures in agent-based models. {F}irstly, to ease the description, we present these structures and their properties in four toy {ABM}s: {S}chelling, {B}oids, {C}ollective {S}ort and {A}nts. {T}hen we define the operations that are needed to represent and specify them without sacrificing the properties of the original model. {A}n implementation of these operations in the {GAML} modelling language (part of the {GAMA} agent-based platform) is then presented. {F}inally, two simulations of the {B}oids model are used to illustrate the expressivity of this language and the multiple advantages it brings in terms of analysis, visualization and modeling of multi-level {ABM}s.},
  keywords = {},
  booktitle = {{P}rinciples and practice of multi-agent systems : 13th {I}nternational {C}onference, {PRIMA} 2010 : {K}olkata, {I}ndia, {N}ovember 12-15, 2010 : revised selected papers},
  numero = {7057},
  pages = {212--227},
  address = {{B}erlin ({DEU}) ; {H}eidelberg},
  publisher = {{S}pringer},
  series = {{L}ecture {N}otes in {A}rtificial {I}ntelligence},
  year = {2012},
  DOI = {10.1007/978-3-642-25920-3_15},
  ISBN = {978-3-642-25919-7},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010079276},
}