De la modélisation de l’activité humaine à la modélisation pour la simulation sociale : entre réalisme et fécondité technologique

SMACH (Multi-Agent Human Activity Simulation) is a social simulation platform that is part of EDF's Research and Development framework aimed at developing simulation to anticipate and reduce energy consumption in homes. In this paper, we develop the idea that simulation requires the integration of a structural relationship into human activity, as residential energy consumption is largely the result of daily life dynamics. To this end, we show that the realism of the simulation realism is created by combining two levels of human activity modeling. The first level consists in framing the design with three epistemological hypotheses of the enaction and the Course of Action (individual, collective activity and coupling with the environment). The second level of modeling consists in applying these hypotheses based on our empirical knowledge of activity in real households. For each of these hypotheses, we explain the proximity and differences between the knowledge derived from empirical analysis and the dynamics created in the simulation. The SMACH platform is currently used by business experts who rely on human activity diagrams or energy consumption curves to carry out studies on the future use of electricity.