Verification and Validation of Agent-Based Simulations Using Approximate Model Checking

Abstract

This paper focusses on the usefulness of approximate probabilistic model checking for the internal and external validation of large-scale agent-based simulations. We describe the translation of typical validation criteria into a variant of linear time logic. We further present a prototypical version of a highly customisable approximate model checker which we used in a range of experiments to verify properties of large scale models whose complexity prevents them from being amenable to conventional explicit or symbolic model checking.