Integration of a hierarchical decision making framework into the multi-agent simulation system LAMPSys

LAMPSys is a Petri net based platform for simulating multiagent scenarios. Throughout the last years, it has been used to successfully simulate complex scenarios in a number of different domains. However, in earlier versions of LAMPSys, agent behaviors had to be hardcoded. This fact makes modeling scenarios that involve complex agent behavior a rather tedious endeavor. This paper introduces an approach that integrates the concept of leader agents with LAMPSys' modeling language. Leader agents encapsulate decision making for a group of related agents in one central agent - thus modeling a decision structure that is often found in hierarchical organizations such as most business companies or the military. This strategy does reduce modeling effort by decomposing the overall task into less complex subtasks. It also models many decision structures in a highly realistic manner.