APSwarm

APSwarm (Automatic Parallel Swarm) is an approach for the efficient and transparent parallelization of a large class of swarm algorithms, specifically those where the multi-agent paradigm is used to implement the functionalities of bio-inspired entities, e.g., ants, birds etc. Parallelization is achieved by partitioning the space on which agents operate onto multiple regions, and assigning each region to a different computing node. Data consistency and conflict issues, which can arise when several agents concurrently access shared data, are handled using a purposely developed notion of logical time. This approach [Cicirelli et al. 2014] enables a transparent porting onto parallel/distributed architectures, as the developer is only in charge of defining the behavior of the agents, without having to cope with issues related to parallel programming and performance optimization.