The spring semester 2021 will take place online until further notice. Exceptions: Courses that can only be carried out with on-site presence. Please note the information provided by the lecturers.

101-0491-00L  Agent Based Modeling in Transportation

SemesterAutumn Semester 2016
LecturersF. Ciari, M. Balac
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish


AbstractThe main topics of the lecture are:
1) Introduction to the agent-based paradigm and overview on existing agent-based models in transportation, including MATSim
2) Learn how to setup MATSim for policy analysis
3) Learn about the interfaces available to enhances the software (includes Java programming)
4) Create, run and analyse a policy study
ObjectiveThe objective of this course is to make the students familiar with agent-based models and in particular with the software MATSim. They will learn the pros and cons of this type of approach versus traditional transport models and will learn to use the simulation. They will design a policy study and run simulations to evaluate the impacts of the proposed policies.
ContentThe main topics are:
1) Introduction to the agent-based paradigm and overview on existing agent-based models in transportation, including MATSim
2) Introduction of basic building blocks of simulation approaches (random numbers generation, experimental design, variance control, response surface estimation)
3) Revision of the key submodels and their parameters and concepts (value of time, Wardrop (Nash) equilibirum, etc.)
3) Learn how to setup MATSim for policy analysis
4) Learn about the interfaces available to enhances the software (includes Java programming)
5) Create, run and analyse a policy study
LiteratureAgent-based modeling in general
Helbing, D (2012) Social Self-Organization, Understanding Complex Systems, Springer, Berlin.
Heppenstall, A., A. T. Crooks, L. M. See and M. Batty (2012) Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems, Springer, Dordrecht.

MATSim

Horni, A., K. Nagel and K.W. Axhausen (eds.) (2016) The Multi-Agent Transport Simulation MATSim, Ubiquity, London
(http://www.matsim.org/the-book)

Additional relevant readings, mostly scientific articles, will be recommended throughout the course.
Prerequisites / NoticeThere are no strict preconditions in terms of which lectures the students should have previously attended. However, it is expected that the students have some experience with some high level programming language (i.e. C, C++, Fortran or Java). If this is not the case, attending the additional java exercises (101-0491-00U) is strongly encouraged.