An objective-based approach for semantic validation of emergence in component-based simulation models

Abstract

Component-based models have been shown to exhibit emergent properties but despite a plethora of definitions and methods to identify emergence, practical semantic validation approaches remain a key challenge. This paper proposes an objective-based approach for semantic validation of emergence in component-based simulation models. In contrast to current methods, our approach describes model components in terms of what they achieve rather than how they achieve it, and we exploit reconstruct ability analysis in the validation of emergence. This has the advantage of reducing the number of attributes used to describe each component, and thus facilitates the application of more rigorous mathematical formalisms for emergence validation. As an example, we detail how this methodology is integrated into the life-cycle of our component-based model development framework.