SENATE: a software system for evaluation of simulation results

Abstract

The purpose of this project described herein is to develop an advanced, modular Graphical User Interface (GUI) based tool for providing cost-effective, integrated, and automated support for assessing the credibility of simulation results using indicators.

The SENATE (A Software SystEm for EvaluatioN of SimulATion REsults) system prototype in this project meets this need by:

providing a system that is easy to use, learn and maintain;

providing general purpose indicators for each stage of the simulation life cycle;

providing a system that will help the simulation project management to automate the means of capturing and retaining the expert assessment of the simulation study using indicators.

This report is meant to give the reader some background on the credibility assessment of simulation results as well as provide an overview of the various aspects of the project. The first chapter states the motivation, objectives, and scenario of the application. The second chapter provides an overview of the credibility and acceptability assessment of simulation results based on a literature survey. It also lists all the general-purpose indicators that have been integrated into the system. Chapter 3 explains the design and implementation issues of the system. The fourth chapter explains the user interface and presents the user’s guide. The final chapter suggests recommended areas for future research.

The system is implemented on a NeXT workstation using the NeXTSTEP Release 3 developer environment. SENATE has been successfully tested by three different users.