I just know about GAMA Multi-Agent Simulator. I would like to have some comparison with other simulators and feedback from researchers who have used it.
Hi, as the designer of GAMA, I cannot really help you on this question :)
However, I think any comparison really depends on the requirements you have in your model, your own skills in programming (or your own will to program), and how you are going to use your model.
my work consist on modeling multi-scale system of system using recursive multi-agent system. as case study I will try to apply it to wireless sensor networks systems. I worked with Omnet++ but it is general and needs more effort to be used for Mult-agent system, so I'm looking for MAS dedicated simulator.
I just began with GAMA. In the net there is not lot of citation of this simulator and lack of docs and tutorials. For the GAMAL I found that there is a significant change between 1.4 and 1.5. Please, would you like to give me some interesting links about GAMA.
Well, the 1.5 version includes a multiple-scale architecture (and associated language structures) and some examples of its use in toy models. The documentation can be found on the wiki (look at version 1.5 on the left-hand menu). And if you have a specific problem, do not hesitate in sending a mail to the general mailing-list. Vo Duc An, the designer of the multiple-scale architecture, is usually very responsive !
In theory, this is possible. In practice, it is a bit undocumented (to say it politely). You can always build a model (using the GAML language) and declare that the species of agents are based on a given Java class, or you can put all of the logic of classes of agents into so-called "skills" (Java classes as well), which is another way to reach the same goal. However, it does not directly answer your question, but the nice thing is that you benefit from all the framework in terms of declarative interface, experiments, etc.
We are right now working (actually, M. Nghi — https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huynh_Nghi/ — is working) on what you ask for. But I cannot promise anything usable coming soon from our efforts.
[UPDATE]: I will be able to tell you more after the 19th of November. We hold the GAMA Coding Camp the 3 days before, and we will normally have a good idea on when we plan to release this feature.
If you want to write directly in Java why not considering to build a system from scratch. Game AI books are usually a very good source for inspiration. For example the book "Buckland (2005) Programming Game AI by Example" provides a very good introduction on how to program Finite State Machines (agents). In the book they use C++ but the principles described are the same for Java.
I am currently trying my luck in writing my own simulation :).
@Igor I have used JADE and I would not really recommend it. JADE was not really meant for large agent-based simulations (or simulation in general, for that matter), so for a few agents it is fine, but if the number grows you may have scalability issues (memory and thread management, for instance) that may be easy to solve, but potentially also synchronization issues that are a lot harder to deal with. I agree with others that you need more clear requirements before making a choice. And as you can see from my JADE comment one of the critical considerations (maybe the main one) is where you will be in the spectrum of simulations that goes from "many simple agents" on one end to "few complex agents" on the other. I would also suggest to pick one for which the simulation engine is native and not a later entry or a separate framework, since many platforms or frameworks were built for multi-agent systems, but not for simualtion initially.