Function fit and data-fitting with AnyLogic sims

Question

In a simulation i get some data looking like a arctan or tanh function.

I want to implement a function fit in Java for getting the parameter of this function for optimization. For other functions i used for example the Apache code for function fit of polynomial and gaus function but couldn't find a solution for tangent.

To be honest I don't know how to write such a function fit so maybe someone can help me fixing this problem or does know if there is already a function fit existing for such functions.

Answer 1

There is an example model called "Calibration of agent based SIR model" that does what you are looking for: Calibrate model parameters so the output matches a given function (not tangent in this example but easy to adjust)

Answer 2

Short answer

AnyLogic does not have any data-fitting capabilities built-in, other than simple interpolation of discrete data (see Table Functions in the help). So

(a) if you needed to do it in-model (e.g., driven by some model state), you'd need to find a suitable Java library that did what was missing in what you'd already tried (Apache Commons), and call that from the AnyLogic model;

(b) if you could do it outside the model, use a data-fitting tool like Stat::Fit (which exists as a plug-in for some sim tools like Simul8, but not for AnyLogic).

Longer answer

Based on your additional explanatory comments, it sounds like this is a question where it's crucial to properly explain your context, and perhaps you don't need to use data-fitting at all (and there may be a more 'AnyLogic-centric' way of approaching it in that case). Particularly around the intended interaction between simulation and (mathematical) Gurobi optimisation; note that AnyLogic has built-in heuristic optimisation via OptQuest so any normal discussion of 'optimisation' with AnyLogic is referring to that.

On the one hand you seem to suggest you want to fit a function to some input data to your simulation. (You talk about having Excel inputs and wanting to fit a curve to it.)

On the other hand, you seem to suggest you want an approach where you are optimising at intermediate time intervals based on run-time model state. But what is the optimiser determining and how do its results affect the ongoing execution of the simulation? You say "So it is not about an optimization of the whole model but of intermediate results. Since I didn't find a solution for this". What 'solution' are you looking for? This sounds like an approach where you're modelling decisions for time period N being made inside the simulation, where those decisions are based on an optimisation using the outcomes from period N-1 as its inputs (and thus the optimisation is effectively based on a simplified emulation of the simulation using a function, since the simulation is already supposed to be the most-accurate computational representation of the real-world system).

So perhaps(?) you're saying that you are emulating/approximating the simulation as a function of its input data (where you happen to think a tangent function fits). In which case the original suggestion (a) is probably the only thing that makes sense. Though, even then, when you are optimising for anything after the first time period, the 'inputs' are no longer the original model inputs; they are some representation of the simulation's current state/outcomes (so it's not clear that this relates to the Excel input data directly, and so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree).