Resilience in Complex Systems: An Agent‐Based Approach

Abstract

This paper presents results from a research project on the behavior of complex systems after they experience disruptive events that impact their performance. As systems become more complex, the probability increases that they will exhibit emergent behavior that could lead to system failures or widespread and prolonged service interruptions. A complex adaptive system (CAS) approach is used to conceptualize a complex network system that has been impacted by disruptions and perturbations. A combination of network analysis and agent-based modeling is used to measure the performance of the system as it responds to disruptive events and restoration efforts. This system-level behavior is an emergent property of the complex network and represents system resilience. Various resilience measures are used to quantify system resilience and assess the effectiveness of strategies system owners employ to restore the system. We illustrate our techniques by characterizing a critical infrastructure system network as a CAS, and applying an agent-based simulation with an adaptive algorithm. C⃝ 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng

Resilience of Complex Systems: State of the Art and Directions for Future Research

“…The other two recent papers employ network theory to study resilience in the face of natural disruptions. Pumpuni-Lenss et al [46] combine network analysis and agent-based modeling to measure the performance of the system as it responds to disruptive events due to broken arcs. Various resilience measures are proposed to quantify system resilience based on the computation of maximum flow data, fraction of operating arcs, system impact, and arc degradation.…”

“…We also suggest that, given the considerable amount of conceptual research and the number of qualitative studies, more emphasis should be devoted to quantitative research approaches adopting, in particular, case studies and simulation. Both approaches would allow the attributes of resilience to be investigated in a greater depth and would contribute to the testing of the conceptual theories already developed [39,148] Engineering, psychology 3 [42,58,137] Environmental science and ecology, engineering, business and economics 4 [5,46,61,62,88] Engineering, operation research and management, computer science 5 [47,92] Environmental science and ecology 6 [50,99,136] Environmental science and ecology, computer science, business and economics 7 [53,117] Environmental science and ecology 8 [63,104] Environmental science and ecology, engineering, computer science 9 [35,59,66,79,113] Environmental science and ecology, engineering, operation research and management, computer science 10 [67,107] Engineering, operation research and management 11 [98,175] Environmental science and ecology, engineering 12 [38,52,121,152,157] Engineering, operation research and management, psychology 13…”

Team Resilience in Complex and Turbulent Environments: The Effect of Size and Density of Social Interactions

“…The majority of studies have investigated the behavioral and psychological characteristics of team members associated with high ability of the team to provide positive outcome and desirable performance, under challenging and critical conditions [18][19][20][21]. More recently, however, scholars have highlighted that grouping together resilient individuals is not a sufficient condition to make the team, as a whole, resilient.…”

A stakeholder framework for evaluating the ‐ilities of autonomous behaviors in complex adaptive systems

“…The model developed in this work was used to predict the performance of a ground vehicle in a unique environment, but it did not extend to multiple agents working together in a swarm as a CAS. System qualities, such as resilience, are conceptualized and simulated in the work from Pumpuni‐Lenss, where a combination of network analysis and agent‐based modeling were used to assess the performance of a CAS after simulated disturbances 11 . Their goal was to measure the performance of such effects to help understand the emergent behavior for strategic system implementation by the stakeholders.…”