Alexander Verbraeck

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Multi Actor Systems

Enabling technologies concerning hardware, networking, and sensing have inspired the development of context-aware IT services. These adapt to the situation of the user, such that service provisioning is specific to his/her corresponding needs. We have seen successful applications of context-aware services in healthcare, well-being, and smart homes....

With the advent of new sensor technologies and communication solutions, the availability of data for discrete event systems has greatly increased. This motivates research on data assimilation for discrete event simulations that has not yet fully matured. This paper presents a particle filter-based data assimilation framework for discrete event simu...

Data assimilation (DA) is a methodology widely used by different disciplines of science and engineering. It is typically applied to continuous systems with numerical models. The application of DA to discrete-event and discrete-time systems including agent-based models is relatively new. Because of its non-linearity and non-Gaussianity, the particle...

Drones performing an autonomous mission need to adapt to frequent changes in their environment. In other words, they have to be context-aware. Most current context-aware systems are designed to distinguish between situations that have been pre-defined in terms of anticipated situation types and corresponding desired behavior types. This only partia...

Classical music venues in the Netherlands and throughout the world are struggling to attract new audiences. Especially younger visitors are underrepresented. Previous research emphasizes the importance of providing new, potentially interested audiences with more means to consume the music. This paper presents an exploratory case study with the pers...

Disruptive Events (DE), such as disasters, virus outbreaks, and military conflicts, are often hugely affecting human life, and works featuring resilience against DE are receiving much attention. A key priority in this regard is the effective monitoring of the affected systems’ state after a DE has occurred. Earlier work shows relevant strengths of...

Scienti c Work ow Applications (SWFAs) can deliver collaborative tools useful to researchers in executing large and complex scienti c processes. Particularly, Scienti c Work ow Scheduling (SWFS) accelerates the computational procedures between the available computational resources and the dependent work ow jobs based on the researchers' requirement...

Game sessions consist of three phases: briefing, gameplay, and debriefing, with the latter being considered the most important feature of games. Nevertheless, given that games are considered by many to be more of an artistic form rather than a scientific artifact, a question that rises is: Can game sessions in general and debriefing in particular b...

Adopting innovations is key for organizations to compete in a complex system, such as the transportation system. In a complex system where social (e.g. organizations) and technical (e.g. information systems) interact with each other, collaboration can be challenging. One of the barriers identified that hampers collaboration is trust. To understand...

Logistics and transport systems are complex systems for which sustainable innovations are urgently needed. Serious games are an acknowledged tool for training, learning, and decision making, as well as for helping to introduce innovative concepts for complex systems. Technological innovations for the transport domain that can improve sustainability...

Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) are designed to deal with normal variability in their inputs and data. Empowered by CONTEXT-AWARENESS, some EIS even count on sensors and/or data analytics for capturing changes outside of the system. Nevertheless, context-awareness would often fail when EIS are affected by (large-scale) disruptive events, such...

Dynamic data-driven simulation (DDDS) incorporates real-time measurement data to improve simulation models during model run-time. Data assimilation (DA) methods aim to best approximate model states with imperfect measurements, where particle Filters (PFs) are commonly used with discrete-event simulations. In this paper, we study three critical cond...

Signalized traffic control is important in traffic management to reduce congestion in urban areas. With recent technological developments, more data have become available to the controllers and advanced state estimation and prediction methods have been developed that use these data. To fully benefit from these techniques in the design of signalized...

New developments in the automotive world have the power to change mobility, but because of high uncertainties, municipalities are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Nonetheless, autonomous, connected and shared vehicle technologies are in a far stage of development and it is only a matter of time before shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) enter urban...

Gaming simulations (games) for policy and decision making have been the neglected "sibling" of educational and training games. The latter have experienced a widespread usage by practitioners and researchers, while the former have had limited , yet slowly increasing, adoption by organisations. As a result, various issues developing and using these g...

Scientific Workflow Applications (SWFA) play a vital role for both service consumers and service providers in designing and implementing large and complex scientific processes. Previously, researchers used parallel and distributed computing technologies, such as utility and grid computing to execute the SWFAs, these technologies provide limited uti...

In this study, we use a complex network analysis approach to investigate the topological structure of container shipping networks in the Indonesia archipelago to understand the network topology. Containerized cargo is responsible for more than half of the inter-island trade volume, making it one critical freight transport mode in the Indonesia arch...

Transport network criticality analysis aims at ranking transport infrastructure elements based on their contribution to the performance of the overall infrastructure network. Despite the wide variety of transport network criticality metrics, little guidance is available on selecting metrics that are fit for the specific purpose of a study. To addre...

In this paper we explore the possibilities to combine two research methods we regard as being very useful when interacting with stakeholders in complex systems. We discuss a mixed research methods approach, based on the Q methodology and a simulation game. In a game design process, translating the real or reference system into the game design is an...

Persuasive games for societal interventions aim to shape, reinforce or change players’ attitudes and behavior to help solving complex societal issues. In earlier work, we explored how persuasive game mechanics may contribute to the formation of attitudes in persuasive games. As a follow-up, this paper presents four design recommendations that could...

In this study, we explore the similarities and differences in learning effects produced by playing a digital and an analogue version of the disruption management game for container terminal operations. We organized the analogue game sessions with students in the United States and digital game sessions with students from Greece. We analysed a postga...

This paper explores the context dependency of four popular persuasive game design principles in order to improve their effective implementation. To prevent the use of badly chosen design principles that can be counterproductive, other authors showed the importance of tailoring persuasive game design principles to various gamer personalities. In thi...

Games used by organizations generate a wealth of valuable output in terms of knowledge. In order to maintain the produced knowledge, such as the explicit, e.g., logging and questionnaires, and implicit/tacit knowledge, e.g., experience from game sessions, a knowledge management system (KMS) should be employed. This paper starts by giving a brief de...

There is an indisputable gap between the conceptualization and introduction of innovation and the actual and effective implementation of innovations in the complex sociotechnical system of transport and logistics throughout Europe. With our research we investigate the role of simulation games as an instrument to understand the dynamics around innov...

This paper presents a new method for measuring and improving production time and cost performance by applying project management concepts and methods. In the context of production and manufacturing industries, we demonstrate how to improve production performance by considering production as a project with limited time and budget in order to track t...

In this paper we discuss the application of simulation gaming to study the behavior and decision making of stakeholders when confronted with complex transportation problems. The problem we tackle is synchromodal transportation. Synchromodality requires the vertical and horizontal collaboration of stakeholders in all the levels of decision making. T...

With the advent of new sensor technologies and communication solutions, the availability of data for discrete event systems has greatly increased. This motivates research on data assimilation for discrete event simulations that has not yet fully matured. This paper presents a particle filter-based data assimilation framework for discrete event simu...

With trajectory data, a complete microscopic and macroscopic picture of traffic flow operations can be obtained. However, trajectory data are difficult to observe over large spatiotemporal regions—particularly in urban contexts—due to practical, technical and financial constraints. The next best thing is to estimate plausible trajectories from what...

It is remarkable that drivers (on average) can safely navigate through dense traffic at high speeds—conditions in which the time headways between vehicles are in the same order of magnitude as human reaction times. One explanation for this is the ability of drivers to anticipate on the traffic conditions in their surroundings. In this paper, we stu...

Games for decision making have developed into a powerful tool for corporations. Irrespective of their size, corporations have been increasingly using these games in order to evaluate and ascertain impactful business decisions and strategies. Despite their proven added value to the decision making process, there is still lack of research on whether,...

The increase in population, high standards of living and rapid urbanization has led to an increasing demand for food across the globe. The global trade has made it possible to meet this demand by enabling transport of different food products from one part of the world to another. In this trade, refrigerated containers (reefers) play an important ro...

Global transportation knows many different modalities – goods arrive from faraway places by ship, plane, railway, or truck. Airports and seaports both represent important nodes within the global transportation network. Both show distinct characteristics, but also similarities when it comes to challenges like required flexibility, robustness, reliab...

Synchromodality is described as a network of well-synchronised and interconnected transportation modes. One of the most important advantages of synchromodality is the development of a sustainable transportation system. Given the numerous stakeholders and network interdependencies within freight transport corridors, achieving efficient coordination...

Simulations are the core of every railway system. Changes in the timetable and the infrastructure, or even in the internal processes of a railway company should be, and usually are, first tested through simulations. Given their significance and potential impact, simulations should be primarily validated; validation ensures-at least to some extent-t...

Planning the operations within a container terminal is a complex task. It requires planners to demonstrate adaptive behavior while handling stressful, complex, and unexpected situations in today’s dynamic and technology dependent workplace. This paper aims at investigating the role of multi-tasking ability, moderated by an individual’s personality...

English abstract, written on November 4th, 2020: Growing e-commerce results in an increasing number of home deliveries, leading to different types of nuisance: congestion, emission of greenhouse gasses, unsafety and noise disturbance, especially in residential areas. Current methods for home delivery services, mainly delivery vans, are not suffici...

Purpose Since the 2008 financial crisis, the financial industry is in need of innovation to increase stability and improve quality of services. The purpose of this paper is to explore internal barriers that influence the effectiveness of projects within large financial services firms focussing on potentially disruptive and radical innovations. Whil...

Supply chain management (SCM) and building information modelling (BIM) are innovations that focus on integration. Recent literature suggests performance benefits from combining these innovations. Within supply chain (SC) partnerships, that use BIM – hereinafter called BIM-enabled SC partnerships – various formal and informal dimensions influence th...

As simulation systems get more and more complex, the study of multi-resolution modeling (MRM) remains an exciting and fertile area of research. Contrasting its abundant successful use cases, a rigorous mathematical foundation is still lacking in MRM. In this paper, we propose a quotient space based multi-resolution modeling (QMRM) theory based on g...

The increase in population, high standards of living and rapid urbanization has led to an increasing demand for food across the globe. The global trade has made it possible to meet this demand by enabling transport of different food products from one part of the world to another. In this trade, refrigerated containers (reefers) play an important ro...

Games have been successfully used in educational settings for many years. Still, it is not known in detail which factors influence the use and effectiveness of educational games. The game environment, its technology, and other game mechanics are factors directly linked to the game itself. The player’s experience with the subject of the game and/or...

With more flexible and large-scale learning environments, new design requirements for games emerge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are one of the most important innovations in the learning field. Still, it is a challenge to motivate learners and to keep them motivated in such huge learning environments. To address this challenge, we redesigned...

The graph transformation based method presented in this paper can automatically generate simulation models assuming that the models are intended for a certain domain. The method differs from other methods in that: the data used for model generation does not contain specifications of the model structures to be generated; the generated simulation mod...

Spatial contacts among human beings are considered as one of the influential factors during the transmission of contagious diseases, such as influenza and tuberculosis. Therefore, representing and understanding spatial contacts plays an important role in epidemic modeling research. However, most current research only considers regular spatial conta...

Data assimilation is an analysis technique which aims to incorporate measured observations into a dynamic system model in order to produce accurate estimates of the current state variables of the system. Although data assimilation is conventionally applied in continuous system models, it is also a desired ability for its discrete event counterpart....

Background. Complex, dynamic systems require flexible workforces with skills and attitudes responding to the dynamic work environment. Traditional, formal classroom-oriented learning approaches often do not sufficiently support the development of such skills and attitudes and do not provide situated learning activities. Aim and Method. We propose t...

Container terminals decouple the long-distance, high volume deep-sea transport from the short-distance, highly fragmented hinterland transport. As around 65 % of general cargo is shipped in containers, these terminals play a very important role in global trade. Planning and aligning the activities in and around container terminals is quite difficul...

This study introduces the concept of microgames to support situated learning in order to foster situational awareness (SA) of planners in seaport container terminals. In today's complex working environments, it is often difficult to develop the required level of understanding of a given situation, described as situational awareness. A container ter...

Automated driving may lead to much higher road capacities, combined with increased road safety, increased driver comfort, and lower costs. Although this vision may hold ground in the long run, first a transitional period will take place in which increasing percentages of vehicles with many levels of automation will drive on the world's road network...

Ramp metering systems on motorways in urban areas need a level of coordination, otherwise, traffic on some on-ramps has much more difficulty entering the motorway than on others. The existing rule-based algorithms, of which HERO is the best known, are a substantial improvement over the uncoordinated case, but this way of coordination still lacks fl...

Rail modeling and simulation is an effective decision support instrument for planning and designing complex rail infrastructures and operations. To successfully support these activities at a large scale, the simulation model should be sufficiently detailed and yet be computationally efficient. This poses a set of challenges pertaining to the design...

A lot of working environments today are very complex, and tasks are interdependent. This requires well-trained and skilled personnel. One example of such complex, interdependent system is a container terminal. A container terminal represents an important node in the multimodal transportation of goods. It connects the global sea transportation of go...

Gamification seems a promising method to engage people and stimulate their activity, both offline and online, but has a dearth of empirical evidence in scientific literature. This study investigated whether gamification can have a positive effect on the amount of user-generated content on online marketplaces. Two similar gamification treatments wer...

Seaports are crucial interfaces in global intermodal freight transportation networks. Their complex operations, connectedness to external stakeholders, and increasing volumes of goods to be handled make them vulnerable to internal and external disruptions. Research has shown that disruptions in seaports can cause undesirable ripple effects, which n...

Modeling complex human social interactions is an important part in agent-based social simulation research. For example, results of interactions (negotiations) for scheduling joint social activities could influence the future plans of the involved individuals, which has a great impact on the researches such as activity-based travel demand analysis a...

Most of the well-known modeling and simulation (M&S) methodologies state the importance of conceptual modeling in simulation studies, and they suggest the use of conceptual models during the simulation model development process. However, only a limited number of methodologies refers to how to move from a conceptual model to an executable simulation...

Inland waterway transport is an important economic activity in the Netherlands and in Europe. Especially in the hinterland transport of containers, inland shipping is expected to form the backbone of a multimodal transport system. To support and strengthen the inland waterway industry in the Netherlands, the Dutch Government conducted a stimulus pr...

This paper discusses Data-Driven Modeling and Simulation (DDM&S) from a systems theoretical viewpoint. The focus is on understanding Systems Theory in relation with Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and how data may convey information about a system. Such an understanding could help formalizing the transformation process from data to systems knowledge...

Current implemented coordinated ramp metering (CRM) strategies are based on heuristic rule-based approaches, which are the most efficient freeway control strategies in actual use up-to-now. Still they are not enough for the increasing traffic demand. This literature review gives an overview of heuristic rule-based control strategies and focuses on...

This paper presents a composable cognitive agent meta-model for multi-agent simulation based on the DEVS (Discrete Event System Specification) framework. We describe an attempt to compose a PRS-based cognitive agent by merely combining "plug and play" DEVS components, show how this DEVS-based cognitive agent meta-model is extensible to serve as a h...

Players of serious games are culturally sensitive agents; by interacting with the game and other players they bring their own culture into the game. This can result in conflicting behaviour that hampers the players to reach the objectives of the game. It is therefore necessary that the design of the game architecture is adjusted to the players’ cul...

The need for short and flexible approaches in training to manage complex and dynamic environments in organizations is fast emerging. We introduce a novel concept in such training called Microgames. They represent a shortened form of simulation games with a strong focus on a specific problem in the organization defined by the client. To illustrate t...

Many working tasks in our complex, fast changing world are no longer to be solved by single workers, but require effective cooperation of a team of workers. Communication, cooperation and participation are basic skills needed for a well functioning team, especially in safety-critical domains like security. In these domains, the ability of a team to...

ProRail is the owner of a number of high fidelity train traffic simulators for designing and managing the physical rail infrastructure. Gaming simulation is used to support the analysis and redesign of rail management and control processes. The games should use the existing train traffic simulators as much as possible to reduce costs and keep the e...

In this paper we report on one of the research activities where we collected data from students on their perceptions of factors that contribute to their success. We invited first year students from different engineering programmes to workshops where we asked them which factors influence their success and how these factors are related, in the studen...

ABMS offers various simulation systems, tools, toolkits and languages for multi-agent system research. However, there is a need for a M&S method for L-systems(large-scale multi-agent systems) research as current ABMS method has some degree of difficulty in dealing with the scale and heterogeneity issues of L-systems. This paper focused on the model...

Simulation and game-based techniques are becoming increasingly popular methods of inquiry into complex service-science-related problems and phenomena. Integrating these techniques and models into the curriculum allows for students to visually learn about the objects of their study and the related concepts, interact with processes, components, and s...

Within complex design projects the methodology of Simulation-Based Design (SBD) is regularly used. In the literature critical remarks have been made on the lack of multiple perspectives within such simulations, which creates inefficiency and dissatisfying results of the design. The use of multi-perspective visualization during an SBD process may gi...

Serious games show to have positive impact on training results. Advantages of simulation games lay in the provision of a safe training environment, where users are able to play, test and probe without serious consequences. At the same time, it is important to engage learners by providing a motivating, challenging environment, which becomes meaningf...