Everything can be Agent!

Most Multi-Agent System designers use several notions - like "agent", "artifact", "object", etc. – to classify the entities involved in simulations. These notions require different methodologies, data structures and algorithms. In thispaper, we show that the representation of entities can befavorably unified. As a consequence, the design and implementation process are made easier, since the designer hasno longer to assign a fixed type to each entity during modelconstruction. The implementation handles entities throughan unified data structure and algorithm, and is thereforelightweight and more maintainable. Such an unification isperformed without efficiency loss in a concrete simulationmethodology called Ioda. According to common sense, wepropose to call such an unified entity simply "agent"!

Authors

• Yoann Kubera
• Philippe Mathieu
• S
• eacute; bastien Picault

Keywords

• Simulation techniques
• Software engineering