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Figure 2.3: Comparison of execution-reaction cycles of Ferber and
Muller (F-M) and Weyns and Holvoet (W-H) [144].
on the system evolution is indicated by the 'Switch point F-M model'.
In contrast, Weyns and Holvoet propose an agent-centered view and
shift the switch point after the reaction calculation. Therefore, each
agent may decide for itself when to start his cycle.
Strengths and weaknesses
The influence-reaction approach and its extension by regional syn-
chronization is an interesting way of handling multiple concurrent
actions of various agents and determining the resulting overall ef-
fect. Weyns and Holvoet point out mainly three open issues of their
proposed model, namely dealing with time, the problem of the syn-
chronization of agent activities and other dynamics in the environment,
as well as the direct communication between agents. Most of these
issues are connected with physical activities and therefore apply to
multi-agent systems but not necessarily multi-agent simulations.
The speedup gained by regional synchronization depends on the
size of the regions and the average number of agents per region. A
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