Biodiesel sim: crowdsourcing simulations for complex model analysis
Derek Riley, Xiaowei Zhang, Xenofon Koutsoukos · 2014
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel source that can be easily made by novices with an inexpensive home-made reactor using waste vegetable oil, but producing high quality fuel using a home-made reactor is difficult due to the complexity of the chemical interactions and the configurations of the proces-sor. A biodiesel processor is a complex system that can be modeled and simulated using formal modeling methods, but accurate modeling can require prohibitively expensive anal-ysis. In this work we present our model analysis approach designed to ‘crowdsource ’ simulations of a formal Stochastic Hybrid System model of biodiesel production. The approach uses an iPad application called Biodiesel Sim, which allows users to play a simulation game that calculates trajectories of a formal stochastic model of biodiesel production. The results of simulations run in the game are collected in a centralized database, which can be searched by users or researchers via a website to encourage users to improve their simulations. The framework used in this application can be used as a template for analysis of other formal models. 1.