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European Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems

EUMAS 2011: Multi-Agent Systems pp 175–188Cite as

What Are Models for?

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 7541))

Abstract

In this paper I discuss some of the purposes and functions of building models, particularly agent-based models, and present a comprehensive list of these purposes and functions. Careful thought and attention is needed when modeling domains containing intelligent entities, which is usually the case for agent modeling. Reflection on the challenges involved in such domains leads me to propose the construction of meta-models, which are models of the relationship between an intended model of the domain and the entities in the domain, when the entities may have access to the intended model or its outputs. Agent-based computing approaches provide disciplined means of specifying, designing, developing and evaluating such meta-models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS, UK

    Peter McBurney

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  1. Peter McBurney
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Viale delle Scienze, ICAR-CNR, Ed. 11, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    Massimo Cossentino

  2. Departement of Knowledge Engineering, Maastricht University, Bouillonstraat 8-10, 6211, Maastricht, LH, The Netherlands

    Michael Kaisers

  3. Department of Knowledge Engineering, Maastricht University, Bouillonstraat 8-10, 6211, Maastricht, LH, The Netherlands

    Karl Tuyls  & Gerhard Weiss  & 

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McBurney, P. (2012). What Are Models for?. In: Cossentino, M., Kaisers, M., Tuyls, K., Weiss, G. (eds) Multi-Agent Systems. EUMAS 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7541. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34799-3_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34799-3_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34798-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34799-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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