LEADSTO: A Language and Environment for Analysis of Dynamics by SimulaTiOn

Abstract

This paper presents the language and software environment LEADSTO that has been developed to model and simulate the dynamics of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) in terms of both qualitative and quantitative concepts. The LEADSTO language is a declarative order-sorted temporal language, extended with quantitative means. Dynamics of MAS can be modelled by specifying the direct temporal dependencies between state properties in successive states. Based on the LEADSTO language, a software environment was developed that performs simulations of LEADSTO specifications, generates simulation traces for further analysis, and constructs visual representations of traces. The approach proved its value in a number of projects within different domains of MAS research.