DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION SOFTWARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE EVALUATION

On-site Simulation-Based Systems Engineering Seminars Available!!!

JOHN R. CLYMER
Applied Research Center for Systems Science
California State University Fullerton

During the last few years, computer simulation has become an essential tool for the design and evaluation of complex Systems of Systems (SOS). SOS includes air and ground transportation networks, military C4ISR multi-agent systems, and complex, international business organizations.  These systems are difficult to understand because each agent (system) in the network adapts its behavior in response to knowledge received from other agents. Agents adapting in collaboration with other agents leads to emergent behavior that is much more complex than any agent could achieve alone.  Such Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) have the potential of much greater capability and effectiveness than traditional systems if designed properly.

A state-of-the-art graphical, discrete event simulation library that works with EXTEND (ImagineThatInc) is available for your evaluation. This library is called Operational Evaluation Modeling for Context-Sensitive Systems (OpEMCSS), and it has the power of much more costly, general-purpose simulation products.  OpEMCSS provides the ability to examine important elements in the problem space and to allow the formulation of alternative solution concepts. OpEMCSS facilitates unconventional “out-of-the-box” thinking to discover the underlying system problems and exploit the best alternatives in the solution space without focusing on a point design too soon. In order to simulate various operational scenarios, OpEMCSS includes blocks to model agent motion and spatial interactions, agent communication and knowledge sharing, and intelligent rule-based decision-making. See OpEMCSS documents or textbook for further details.

The latest version of the Classifier Event Action block in OpEMCSS7 can learn a sequence of rules that optimizes the total reward from the environment. Such behavior is called reinforcement learning. Run GRIDWORLD.mox as a demonstration of reinforcement learning.

See COPYRIGHT for policy information before downloading OpEMCSS for your evaluation. 

Also available is the new, user tested version of the textbook “Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex Systems.” This book can be ordered directly from the CSUF TITAN bookstore. Order your copy on-line today. Go to top left corner of CSUF TITAN bookstore web-page and click on “books.” URL is “http://www.titanbookstore.com/ .”

The textbook instructs the reader in how to use the OpEMCSS library blocks to simulate complex systems. While learning to use the OpEMCSS library blocks you will also gain an understanding of the basic principles of complex systems and methods for simulation-based engineering of complex systems.

You can download any of the following WINZIP files containing libraries, models, or documents by clicking on the highlighted name.

OpEMLIB7.ZIP is a zip file that contains four simulation libraries.  OpEMCSS7.LIX and OpEMAUX7.LIX are two of the simulation libraries that work with the regular EXTENDSIM, EXTENDSIM-LT (student version), and the EXTENDSIM DEMO. DEMO version is available free from Imagine That Inc. Earlier EXTEND versions of OpEMCSS, OpEMLIB6.ZIP and OpEMLIB5.ZIP, are also still available.

DOCUMENTS.ZIP contains two papers that document some of the OpEMCSS library blocks and how to use them to build a simulation of your system.  Each of the OpEMCSS blocks has a help button at the bottom of its dialog box that provides more detailed documentation.

Here is a zip file MODELS7.ZIP containing a set of OpEMCSS7 simulation models you can run using the regular EXTENDSIM, EXTENDSIM-LT (student version), and the EXTENDSIM DEMO. Earlier EXTEND versions of OpEMCSS models, MODELS6.ZIP and MODELS5.ZIP, are also still available.

You can arrange a one-week short course on how to use the OpEMCSS7.lix library to solve your simulation problems.  Send an E-mail message describing your interest in having such a course at your location. One day tutorials and half day seminars are also possible.

KEY WORDS: Graphical Simulation Library, Systems Design and Evaluation, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Simulation-Based Systems Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Complex Adaptive Systems, Context-Sensitive Systems, Software Resources.

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