SPADES: System for Parallel Agent Discrete Event Simulation

(previously known as MPADES)

Hosted by

This project is distinct from the SPaDES/Java project, which is also a simulation infrastructure. Sorry for the name collision.

What is it?

SPADES is a middleware system for the creation of artificial intelligence agent-based simulations. An agent is a software entity that has a continual sense-think-act cycle interaction with the simulated world. SPADES tracks the computation time used by the agents as a fundamental component of the agent's behavior. The system handles distribution of the simulation across machines and uses a novel algorithm (tailored to the simulation of agents) for out of order execution of simulation events, as well as being robust to variations in the network and machine load.

SPADES is a middleware system. It is designed to handle some of the tricky parts of running a distributed simulation for the aritficial intelligence community without being tied to any one particular simulation.

What advantages does it have?

• Supports distribution simulation of agent interaction, mainly tailored to the AI community
• Tracks the computation time used by agents and reflects that in the simulation
• Is not tied to any particular simulation, but designed as a resuable library for many simulations
  
• Does not require that agents are written in any particular programming language
• Handles all aspects of managing the distribution of agents so that the designer of the simulated world does not need to address them
• Results of simulation are robust to machine and network load variations
• Uses a novel algorithm to allow out of order execution of events that do not violate casual ordering
  

Current News

• (23 May 2005) Version 1.10 is now available. The version got bumped because this include an interface addition for the agent (a request current think time message).
• (06 May 2005) Version 1.05 is now available. This notably includes fixes to the fork/clone tracking.
• (02 Mar 2005) Version 1.04 is now available. This fixed some minor bugs and contains the initial version of an OSX port.
• (15 Jan 2005) A link to a new user-contributed FAQ has been added.
• (03 Nov 2004) Version 1.03 is now available. This is a minor bug fix release.
• (28 Sep 2004) Version 1.02 is now available. This is just a repackage of 1.02 to include some autoconf files that were unintentionally left out.
• (25 Aug 2004) Version 1.01 is now available, with a host of minor bug fixes.
• (07 Jun 2004) Version 1.0 is now available. This marks the move of SPADES from beta to omega software. Please let me know if you have any problems or comments.
• (15 Apr 2004) Version 0.93 has been out for a while, but I am just now updating the web page.
• (12 Feb 2004) Version 0.92 is now available with a number of minor updates.
• (07 Dec 2003) Version 0.91 is now avilable with a number of small feature improvemnts over 0.9. A new up-to-date version of the manual is also now available.
• (03 Nov 2003) Version 0.9 is now available. The biggest new feature is the ability to load an agent from a dynamic library so that it exists in the same process as the communication server.
• (14 Oct 2003) Version 0.81 is now available, notably including a brand new compilation and installation process (using the GNU autotools) which should make it easier to configure, compile, and install the software. Please let me know if you have any problems.
• (29 Aug 2003) The first upload of version 0.8 was corrupted. A new version should be making it's way through the sourceforge mirrors now.

What's the status?

The system is implemented and fully functional. I am currently quite happily using the system for some of the simulations for my own research.

The system is also being used for the new 3D server of the Soccer Server.

This system is also under active developement.

There is extensive documentation which is somewhat up to date.

More information?

• Check out the project page at SourceForge.
• Go straight to the download area.
• My paper at the Winter Simulation Conference, "SPADES --- A Distributed Agent Simulation Environment with Software-in-the-Loop Execution"
• User contributed FAQ. You can post and answer questions at this wiki. It is not maintained by the owner of this project, but it is run by one of the most knowledgeable users (and frequent patch contributer), Marco Pracucci.