The Overview, Design concepts and Details (ODD) protocol is a standardized framework used to describe and document a consistent logical and understandable representation of the structure and dynamics of ABM models.
ODD Protocol offers a formatted way of outlining the various facets of an ABM, promoting clear dialogue and comprehension between researchers.
Components of the ODD protocol include:
a. Overview: The purpose, research questions, and goals of the ABM are succinctly summarized in this section. It gives an overview of the primary actors or entities in the model, how they interact with one another, and the system as a whole.
b. Design ideas: The essential ideas and presumptions that inform the ABM design are discussed in this section. It explains the main ideas, laws, and methods the agents utilized to make decisions. It may also go through the model's temporal or spatial aspects, as well as any stochastic or components with determinism.
c. Details: The application of the model is covered in more detail in this section. The technical specifics are covered, including the software or programming language used, the methods used, and the initialization and termination circumstances. Additionally, it provides details regarding the model's variables, their values, and their sources.
ABMs and machine learning models take distinct techniques to modeling and understanding complex systems. In contrast to machine learning models, Agent-Based Models (ABMs) are more commonly connected with the ODD (Overview, Design ideas, and Details) approach. Nevertheless, the "Details" component of the ODD protocol, in particular, can be used to document and describe machine learning models.