  Agent-based simulations are most common in the social and behavioral sciences, though we also find them in such disciplines as artificial life, epidemiology, ecology, and any discipline in which the networked interaction of many individuals is being studied.  Agent-based simulations are similar to particle-based simulations in that they represent the behavior of n-many discrete individuals.  But unlike equation-particle-based simulations, there are no global differential equations that govern the motions of the individuals. Rather, in agent-based simulations, the behavior of the individuals is dictated by their own local rules