Agent-based modeling and simulation - Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems - page 43

No consideration of concurrent and conflicting actions Given the
parallel execution of multiple agents, there will always be the case,
that the actions of two or more agents will conflict. This presents
multiple challenges: At first, possible conflicts have to be detected
(e. g., depending on the agents locations or on the type of action the
agents want to execute). After detection of possible conflicts, con-
sequences of these conflicts have to be determined and the influences
onto the agents desired behavior have to be computed. Finally, the
actions and events resulting from conflicts have to be executed and
made perceptible to the agents (both, the agents directly involved as
well as the agents in sensor range of this event).
Scheutz/Schermerhorn as well as Klugl put this aspect aside and hide
these details within their respective model update functions. But as
this topic bears a lot of information for the execution of a simulation
and is directly connected to the (above mentioned) aspect of the
atomicity of actions and simulation time needed for the execution of
an action, this topic of conflicting actions seems to be too important
not to be considered in the definition of a reference model for an
agent-based simulation.
2.4 The role of the environment in agent-based
models
As mentioned several times in the previous sections, the environment
usually plays a crucial role in a multi-agent simulation [13, 146]. In
order to avoid confusion and because of a multitude of different and
sometimes unclear ways of dealing with the environment, especially
in the closely related fields of multi-agent simulation and multi-agent
systems , a precise definition of the term is necessary.
First of all, it is important to distinguish between the simulated
environment and the simulation environment. In short, the simulated
environment is a goal-directed abstraction of the original environment
and thus part of the model itself, whereas the simulation environment
provides the infrastructure necessary for running the simulation [70].