Utilizing Python for Agent-based Modeling: The Mesa Framework

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In the past I have mentioned Mesa, an agent-based modeling framework in Python is several posts but not really discussed it in detail. This is about to change with this post. The reason being is that we have a paper at the forthcoming International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (or SBP-BRiMS for short) entitled "Utilizing Python for Agent-based Modeling: The Mesa Framework".

While Mesa started off with two students from the CSS program at George Mason University: Jackie Kazil and David Masad it has now grown to include over 70 contributors. In this new paper we discuss the rationale for developing Mesa (see https://github.com/projectmesa/mesa) which arose because there was no framework for easily building agent-based models in Python. Furthermore we discuss Mesa's design goals and its architecture and usage, along with who is using Mesa and extensions to it (e.g. Mesa-Geo, Multi-Level Mesa), finally we conclude the paper with future development directions. Below we provide the abstract to the paper and a selection of figures which highlights Mesa's model components (model, analysis and visualization), how various activation schedules are incorporated within Mesa and an illustration of how these different schemes impact a model and some examples of Mesa's visualization functionality. At the bottom of the post we have the full reference and a link to the paper.​

Abstract.

Mesa is an agent-based modeling framework written in Python. Originally started in 2013, it was created to be the go-to tool in for re-searchers wishing to build agent-based models with Python. Within this paper we present Mesa’s design goals, along with its underlying architecture. This includes its core components: 1) the model (Model, Agent, Schedule, and Space), 2) analysis (Data Collector and Batch Runner) and the visualization (Visualization Server and Visualization Browser Page). We then discuss how agent-based models can be created in Mesa. This is followed by a discussion of applications and extensions by other researchers to demonstrate how Mesa design is decoupled and extensible and thus creating the opportunity for a larger decentralized ecosystem of packages that people can share and reuse for their own needs. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary and discussion of future development areas for Mesa.

Keywords: Agent-based Modeling, Python, Framework, Complex Systems.​

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Mesa model components: model, analysis and visualization.​

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Activation schedules within Mesa and an illustration of how these different schemes impact a model. In this case the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Defecting agents are in red and cooperating agents are in blue. Each image is from the same step, but different activation schemes are used.​

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Model visualization of two Mesa applications within a web browser: (A) Wolf-sheep predation Model. (B) Virus on a network (Source: https://github.com/projectmesa).​

Full Reference:

Kazil, J., Masad, D. and Crooks, A.T. (2020), Utilizing Python for Agent-based Modeling: The Mesa Framework, in Thomson, R., Bisgin, H., Dancy, C., Hyder, A. and Hussain, M. (eds), 2020 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation, Washington DC., pp. 308-317. (pdf)

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