krABMaga

A modern developing art for reliable and efficient ABM simulation with the Rust language

(Notice that the parallel and visualization components are excluded from codecov as are experimental ore release candidate)

krABMaga (Previously named Rust-AB) is a discrete events simulation engine for developing ABM simulation that is written in Rust language.

krABMaga is designed to be a ready-to-use tool for the ABM community and for this reason the architectural concepts of the well-adopted MASON library were re-engineered to exploit the Rust peculiarities and programming model.

Developed by

Examples

All the examples are hosted in a separate repository here.

• Ants Foraging
• Flockers
• Forest Fire
• Schelling Model
• Virus on Network
• Wolf Sheep Grass

Usage

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
krabmaga = 0.4.*

To get started using krABMaga, see the examples. There's also a template to set up the correct project structure and the required files here.

Model Visualization with Bevy Game Engine

Based on Bevy game engine, it's possible to run simulation with visualization. It's also available a menu to start and stop simulations and a slider to set simulation speed. To run a model with visualization enabled, you have to start the simulation with the command:

cargo run --release --features  visualization

# Alternative command. Requires 'cargo make' installed
cargo make run --release 

In addition to the classical visualization, you can run your krABMaga simulation inside your browser using Web Assembly. This is possible with the command:

# Requires 'cargo make' installed
cargo make serve --release 

Visualization FAQs

In case you have troubles compiling your visualization, consult this following list of common errors first before making an issue:

• Wasm related errors due to bevy_log: run this command to force the tracing-wasm dependency to 0.2.0:

cargo update -p tracing-wasm --precise 0.2.0

• "Data remaining" issue or "len is 0 but index is 0" when running a simulation on the web: Force update your wasm-bindgen-cli local installation to version 0.2.79.
• Out of memory error when running a simulation on the web, in chrome: run your simulation with the release profile.

Dependencies

The visualization framework requires certain dependencies to run the simulation properly.

• :desktop_computer: Windows: VS2019 build tools
• :apple: MacOS: No dependencies needed.
• :penguin: Linux: A few dependencies are needed. Check here for a list based on your distribution.

How to write your first model

If you don't start from our Template, add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
krabmaga = 0.4.*

[features]
visualization = ["krabmaga/visualization"]
visualization_wasm = ["krabmaga/visualization_wasm"]

We strongly recommend to use Template or any other example as base of a new project, especially if you want to provide any visualization.

Each krABMaga model needs structs that implements our Traits, one for State and the other for Agent. In the State struct you have to put Agent field(s), because it represents the ecosystem of a simulation. More details for each krABMaga componenet are in the Architecture section.

The simplest part is main.rs, because is similar for each example. You can define two main functions using cfg directive, that can remove code based on which features are (not) enabled.
Without visualization, you have only to use simulate! to run simulation, passing a state, step number and how may time repeat your simulation. With visualization, you have to set graphical settings (like dimension or background) and call start method.

// Main used when only the simulation should run, without any visualization.
#[cfg(not(any(feature = "visualization", feature = "visualization_wasm")))]
fn main() {
  let dim = (200., 200.);
  let num_agents = 100;  
  let state = Flocker::new(dim, num_agents);
  let step = 10;
  let reps = 1;
  let _ = simulate!(state, step, reps);
}

// Main used when a visualization feature is applied.
#[cfg(any(feature = "visualization", feature = "visualization_wasm"))]
fn main() {
  let dim = (200., 200.);
  let num_agents = 100;
  let state = Flocker::new(dim, num_agents);
  Visualization::default()
      .with_window_dimensions(1000., 700.)
      .with_simulation_dimensions(dim.0 as f32, dim.1 as f32)
      .with_background_color(Color::rgb(0., 0., 0.))
      .with_name("Flockers")
      .start::<VisState, Flocker>(VisState, state);
}

Available features

Macros for playing with Simulation Terminal

Simulation Terminal is enabled by default using macro simulate!, so can be used passing a state, step number and how may time repeat your simulation.. That macro has a fourth optional parameter, a boolean. When false is passed, Simulation Terminal is disabled.

($s:expr, $step:expr, $reps:expr $(, $flag:expr)?) => {{
      // Macro code 
}}

You can create tabs and plot your data using two macro:

• addplot! let you create a new plot that will be displayed in its own tab.

addplot!(String::from("Chart Name"), String::from("xxxx"), String::from("yyyyy"));

• plot! to add a point to a plot. Points can be added during simulation execution, for example inside after_step method. You have to pass plot name, series name, x value and y value. Coordinate values need to be f64.

plot!(String::from("Chart name"), String::from("s1"), x, y);

On Terminal home page there is also a log section, you can plot log messages when some event needs to be noticed. You can navigate among all logs using ↑↓ arrows. To add a log use the macro log!, passing a LogType (an enum) and the log message.

 log!(LogType::Info, String::from("Log Message"));

Are available four type of Logs:

pub enum LogType {
    Info,
    Warning,
    Error,
    Critical,
}

Contributing FAQ

Support conference paper

If you find this code useful in your research, please consider citing:

@ARTICLE{AntelmiASIASIM2019,
  author={Antelmi, A. and Cordasco, G. and D’Auria, M. and De Vinco, D. and Negro, A. and Spagnuolo, C.},
  title={On Evaluating Rust as a Programming Language for the Future of Massive Agent-Based Simulations},
  journal={Communications in Computer and Information Science},
  note={Conference of 19th Asia Simulation Conference, AsiaSim 2019 ; Conference Date: 30 October 2019 Through 1 November 2019;  Conference Code:233729},
  year={2019},
  volume={1094},
  pages={15-28},
  doi={10.1007/978-981-15-1078-6_2},
  issn={18650929},
  isbn={9789811510779},
}

🏆 Best Paper Nominee

License

The MIT License

Copyright (c) ISISLab, Università degli Studi di Salerno 2019.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.