Comparing Discrete Event and Agent Based Simulation in Modelling Human Behaviour at Airport Check-in Counter

摘要

Simulation is a well-established technique that uses what-if scenario analysis tool in Operational Research (OR). Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and System Dynamics Simulation (SDS) are the predominant simulation techniques in OR. However, in recent time, a new simulation technique, namely Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) is gaining more attention in the modelling of human behaviour. This research focused on modelling the human behaviour using DES and a combination of DES/ABS. The contribution made by this paper is the information unveiled as a result of comparing DES and a combination of DES/ABS for modelling both human reactive and human proactive behaviour in service systems; such as check-in services in an airport. The results of our experiments show that, the level of reactiveness considered in the combined DES/ABS model has a big impact on the simulation outputs. Therefore, for service systems of the type under investigation, we would suggest the use of hybridized DES/ABS as the preferred analysis tool.