Learning Agents' Behavioral Patterns in Agent-Based Modeling by Means of Evolutionary Algorithms

Agent-based models (ABM) stand as a well-established paradigm in developing computational models. ABM enable the simulation of complex systems by consolidating individual-level interactions through an underlying artificial social network. Upon the accurate construction of a model, experts can employ it as a decision support system for assessing policies in hypothetical what-if scenarios and gaining insights into the operational dynamics of the target system. However, ABM still face diverse challenges such as learning realistic agents' behavioral patterns to model real-world conducts and habits. Existing research shows that machine learning techniques, when used in ABM, can address such challenges. This work focuses on using evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to learn agents' behavior through the definition of their micro-rules, aiming to accurately model them, and thus improving the global performance of the system. To do so, we model the machine learning problem and undertake a comparative analysis of seven EAs, encompassing both classical and recent approaches, to learn agents' micro-rules with a specific focus on consumers' behavior for brand selection. Our investigation involves the assessment of the performance of each EA across problem instances derived from an ABM applied to real-world marketing domains such as dairy products and automakers. The findings of our study reveal a distinct dominance of SHADE-ILS and DECC-g over the remaining algorithms considered. Furthermore, we underline the advantages of these methods to assist modelers in selecting among the best solutions.