Coensys, Inc.

AnyLogic Training Program

 This program can be customized to meet your needs.

 Duration:

3-4 days (Based on your needs)

 Location:

Customer site

    Or

Coensys Facilities in Cherry Hill, NJ

 Hardware/software:

Trainees will be using their own laptops satisfying AnyLogic System Requirements

Number of participants:

Up to 10

 Handout materials:

CDs with latest AnyLogic software, all presentations and training reference

models will be given to everybody.

 Cost:

 Please contact us for details.

AGENDA:

1. Introduction and Basics ( 1 day )
2. System Dynamics Modeling ( ½ day )
3. Agent Based Modeling ( ½ day )
4. Discrete Event Modeling ( ½  day )
5. Hybrid Systems Modeling ( ½ day )
6. Customer-specific Part  ( 1 day )

 Please see the detailed agenda below.

Training Program Details

 1. INTRODUCTION and BASICS

 Simulation Modeling

This presentation is not that much about AnyLogic but about the simulation modeling in general. The main goal is to make sure we all agree on the terms we use, such as: analytical and simulation modeling, system dynamics and dynamic systems, discrete event simulation, agent based modeling, etc. We will consider approaches and abstraction levels and show how same problems may be solved using different approaches. At the end we will briefly list most popular simulation modeling tools and position AnyLogic in the “tool space”.

• What is modeling
• Simulation vs analytical modeling
• Applications of simulation modeling
• Levels of abstraction
• Approaches to simulation modeling:
  • System dynamics
  • Discrete event (flowchart simulation)
  • Agent based simulation
  • Dynamic systems
• Relationships between approaches
• When to use what approach
• Traditional tools
• AnyLogic: multi-approach cross-domain tool

 Model demo

 Several AnyLogic models from different application areas and using different approaches demoed

 AnyLogic foundation technology overview [presentation]

This is a quick technical tour through AnyLogic core modeling language and the surrounding technologies. This presentation is not application-centered, it is tool-centered, so sometimes we skip it or do it at a later point when the participants have built some concrete models.

• Foundation principles, a brief history
• Core technology and “vertical solutions”
• Model structure
• OO modeling: active object classes and instances
• Encapsulation and model tree
• Regular and dynamic structures
• Parameters (simple, global, dynamic)
• Discrete behavior
• Statecharts
• Timers
• Continuous behavior
• Variables and equations
• Numerical methods
• Time and event processing in discrete models and hybrid discrete/continuous models
• Stochastic and deterministic modeling, seed, reproducible simulations
• AnyLogic Java API and its most frequently used functions
• User-defined functions and lookup tables
• Data collection and statistical processing
• Interfacing external data storages and software
• Distribution fitting with Stat::Fit TM
• Animation principles, 2D and 3D animation, importing graphics
• Experiment framework
• Simulation
• Optimization with OptQuest TM
• Risk analysis, Monte-Carlo
• Parameter variation, Sensitivity analysis
• Custom experiment
• Debugging the model
• XML model format, automatic generation of models, reporting
• Cross platform and Web-enabled models
• Future development of AnyLogic

 Java basics for AnyLogic modelers [presentation]

Useful for people familiar with Java and necessary for those who have never used Java before.

• Traversing the model tree
• Calling functions and accessing fields of active objects
• Basic statements: assignment, decision, loop
• Accessing replicated objects
• Useful global functions
• Type casting

 2. System Dynamics Modeling

Developed by Jay W. Forrester in the 1950s, System Dynamics is “the study of information-feedback characteristics of industrial activity to show how organizational structure, amplification (in policies), and time delays (in decisions and actions) interact to influence the success of the enterprise”. The range of SD applications includes also urban, social, ecological types of systems. In SD the real-world processes are represented in terms of stocks (e.g. of material, knowledge, people, money), flows between these stocks, and information that determines the values of the flows. SD abstracts from single events and entities and takes an aggregate view concentrating on policies. To approach the problem in SD style one has to describe the system behavior as a number of interacting feedback loops, balancing or reinforcing, and delay structures…

 System Dynamics Modeling in AnyLogic [presentation]

• SD applications: when and where to use SD
• Stock and Flow diagrams
• Lookup tables and delays
• Multi-dimensional data: arrays(subscripts); operations on arrays
• Comparison with traditional SD tools

Model demo

• Ecosystem
• Innovation diffusion
• Urban dynamics
• Medicine use

 System Dynamics Modeling in AnyLogic [hands-on]

• Simple SD model
• Advanced SD model using arrays

3. Agent Based Modeling

 There are no universally accepted definitions in the area of agent based modeling, and people still discuss what kind of properties should a thing have to “deserve” to be called an “agent”: pro- and re-activeness, spatial awareness, ability to learn, social ability, etc. We however are simulation modeling practitioners and for us only those agents make sense that can be efficiently applied to solve practical problems that cannot be solved otherwise using traditional approaches. Therefore we would like to stress just one feature of agent based models: they are essentially decentralized. Compared to SD or DE models, there is no such place in AB model where the global system behavior (dynamics) would be defined. Instead, the modeler defines behavior at individual level, and the global behavior emerges as a result of many (tens, hundreds, thousands, millions) individuals, each following its own behavior rules, living together in some environment and communicating with each other and with the environment…

 Agent Based Modeling in AnyLogic [presentation]

• AB modeling applications: when and where to use AB
• AnyLogic – the only existing tool for efficient agent based modeling
• Typical tasks for agent based modeling
• Active objects as agents
• Defining, creating and destroying agents
• Defining environment model
• Agent-to-environment communication
• Agent-to-agent communication
• Agent behavior and interface
• Synchronous and asynchronous agents
• Spatial awareness and mobility of agents
• Animating agent based models
• How many agents to simulate?

Model demo

• Alcohol use
• Paper Pulp Companies Competition
• Adaptive Supply Chain
• Promotion Response
• Population Dynamics
• Flocks of Boids Combat

Agent Based Modeling in AnyLogic [hands-on]

AB model with gradually added features

 4. Discrete Event Modeling

We will reserve the term “discrete event modeling” for the modeling approach based on the concept of entities, resources and block charts describing entity flow and resource sharing. This approach roots to 1960s when Geoffrey Gordon conceived and evolved the idea for GPSS and brought about its IBM implementations. Entities (transactions in GPSS) are passive objects that represent people, parts, documents, tasks, messages, etc., travel through the blocks of the flowchart where they stay in queues, are delayed, processed, seize and release resources, split, combined, etc…

Discrete Event Modeling

• DE modeling applications: when and where to use DE
• AnyLogic Enterprise Library – a “vertical” solution for DE modeling
• Flowcharts, flowchart objects (blocks) and entities
• Standard objects of the Enterprise Library
• Typical flowchart object: interface, input/output policies, behavior, flow rules
• Entities
• Resources
• Activity Based Costing
• Dynamic parameters, custom Java fragments and their role in AnyLogic DE models
• Hierarchical DE modeling
• Standard and custom statistics collection
• Animation of DE models
• Advanced transportation modeling framework
• Combining DE with other approaches
• Material Flow Library
• Comparison with traditional DE tools

 Model demo

• Airport terminal
• Ferrous plant logistics
• Emergency department
• Transportation

Discrete Event Modeling in AnyLogic [hands-on]

• Traditional flowchart-style DE model
• Previous model with integrated non-DE part
• DE model using advanced transportation framework

5. Hybrid System Dynamics + Agent Based Models [presentation]

• AB model with SD environment
• AB model with agent behavior defined in SD style

6. Customer-specific Part of the Training

This part has free format – it is up to you how to utilize the instructors’ time. If you know in advance what additional topics you would like us to cover, have any questions or models to discuss, please let us know. Otherwise, this should be clear by the time the standard program is completed.