An Initial Comparison of Selected Agent-Based Simulation Tools in the Context of Industrial Health and Safety Management
Raphaele Raab, Kerstin Lenger, Debora Stickler, Wolfgang Granigg, Klaus Lichtenegger · 2022
Agent-based approaches are becoming more and more popular for the modelling and simulation of natural phenomena, behaviour-specific patterns as well as in the health and safety area. In this paper we aim to evaluate and compare selected agent-based software tools. A selection is necessary due to this field being a fast evolving one, which offers numerous software frameworks and tools. Since our focus lies in the health and safety area, the primary selection criterion was the applicability in the field of social sciences. Furthermore the modeling strength of the software tools was considered. Based on these selection criteria NetLogo, GAMA and Repast are used for an initial comparison, which involves technical details, modelling, simulation and data exchange. To compare the agent-based software tools in a experimental setup, we implemented Conway’s Game of Life. In these experiments, NetLogo outperforms both GAMA and Repast Simphony ReLogo with regard to execution speed. We conclude that in our context, NetLogo and GAMA appear to be more suitable than Repast. The latter - although very versatile - requires a high amount a programming skills. GAMA’s primary strength on the other hand is the heavy focus on GIS data involvement, while NetLogo is not only very intuitive in learning but offers also a large number of features.