Numerical Study on an Autonomous Decentralized Model-Based Simulation of Resources Circulation Systems

Abstract

In this paper, a methodology for modeling and controlling of resources circulation systems is studied. We propose a model structure by introducing two kinds of sub-models: a physical model and an information model. The physical model is used for simulating the flow of materials, products and also money, while the information model is used for representing flow of information and decision-making on production, consumption, recycling/reuse, discard, etc. Moreover, we introduce an additional top-level component, a supervisor, who observes the global behavior of the system and controls it indirectly. Based on the proposed approach, we implement a prototype of simulation model including producers, consumers and recyclers. Through some computer simulations based on the model, it is shown that the model has price adjustment function and its global behavior is very complicated. Then, we examine influences of the informational as well as the physical indirect control on the resources circulation.