VizScript: Visualizing Complex Interactions in Multi-Agent Systems

We address the problem of users creating visualizations to debug and understand multi-agent systems. The key challenges are that (1) needs arise dynamically, i.e., it is difficult to know a priori what visualizations one wants, (2) extensive expertise on the system, the algorithms and visualization tools are often needed for implementation, and (3) agents can be running in a distributed environment. We have developed VizScript, a collection of tools to expedite the process of creating visualizations. VizScript combines a generic application instrumentation, a knowledge base, and simple scene definition primitives with a reasoning system, to produce an easy to use visualization system. Using VizScript we were able to recreate the visualizations for a complex multi-agent system with an order-of-magnitude less effort than was required in a Java implementation. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: General terms: Algorithms, Measurement, Performance, Design...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICIA
• Authors: Jing Jin, Rajiv T. Maheswaran, Romeo Sanchez, Pedro A. Szekely
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, ICIA 2007, Multi-agent System, Scene Definition Primitives, Users Creating Visualizations