LARGE-SCALE HIGH-FIDELITY AGENT-BASED SIMULATION IN AIR TRAFFIC DOMAIN

We present the concept of dynamic partitioning of scalable, high-fidelity multi-agent simulation complemented with intelligent load-balancing processes. The simulation framework is designed to simulate entities to high details that require extended computation resources. To be able to simulate a huge amount of entities, distributed simulation is introduced using spatial partitioning and dynamic load balancing. A novel and important feature is the combination of the synchronous and asynchronous parts in the simulation. We use the domain of the air traffic simulation to verify the simulation framework. We present a method to perform spatial and temporal planning within 3D space and multilayer architecture using several collision avoidance algorithms to illustrate the high computational demands of each airplane. The platform has been used to support simulation of an entire civilian air traffic touching the national airspace of United States. A thorough evaluation of the system has been performed, confirming that it can scale up to a very high number of complex agents operating simultaneously (thousands of aircrafts) with full detailed models.

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