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Modeling and simulation of living systems as systems of systems

Duboz R., Soulie J.C.. 2017. In : Zeigler Bernard P. (ed.), Sarjoughian Hessam S. (ed.). Guide to modeling and simulation of systems of systems. Cham : Springer, p. 325-350. (Simulation foundations, methods and applications).

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-64134-8

In this chapter, we have addressed some of the issues regarding modeling and simulation of living systems. We have seen that the systemic point of view of the DEVS formalism matches the systemic point of view adopted in the living sciences field. Two examples, one in animal epidemiology and the other in plant growth modeling, illustrated very different characteristics of DEVS and its extensions. The multi-formalistic abilities of DEVS increase the descriptive capacity of modelers when studying very complex systems. This capacity has not been used to its real potential in the field of living systems. Hopefully, its use will increase in the future since DEVS-based systems are very promising to help answer critical issues, as shown in this chapter, regarding natural risk management and poverty reduction. As we assume that DEVS can be used to specify a wide vatiety of living systems considered as a system of systems, it should be used for their specification. It is gene1ic enough to work as a universal formalism for living dynamical systems modeling and simulation. Of course, using a software environment such as the VLE platform greatly facilitates the model design, its implementation, and its execution. DEVS is an abstract formalism and can be hat·d to manage when the modeling effort has to focus on the application domain. That is why projects like RECORD (Bergez et al. 2012) provides an environment where DEVS is used at the simulation level and where the modeling level is composed by a set of specialized modeling components, where components are represented by approptiate fom1alisms. Doing that, the modeler can design the model using the most suitable formalism, or coupling several ones, without any knowledge of DEVS. The mappings of the main formalisms that ai·e used for living system modeling and simulation into DEVS already exist in VLE. The modeler can of course directly specify a model in DEVS as needed as well. In this chapter, we have discussed model continuity

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