ASEVis: Visual Exploration of Active System Ensembles to Define Characteristic Measures

TL;DR

ASEVis is an interactive visualization tool designed to analyze active particle system ensembles by defining and exploring characteristic measures that relate input parameters to dynamic behaviors.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel interactive visual analysis tool that enables users to define and refine measures for understanding complex ensemble behaviors in active particle systems.

Findings

Supports interactive measure definition and refinement

Facilitates understanding of parameter dependencies

Enhances insight into system dynamics

Abstract

Simulation ensembles are a common tool in physics for understanding how a model outcome depends on input parameters. We analyze an active particle system, where each particle can use energy from its surroundings to propel itself. A multi-dimensional feature vector containing all particles' motion information can describe the whole system at each time step. The system's behavior strongly depends on input parameters like the propulsion mechanism of the particles. To understand how the time-varying behavior depends on the input parameters, it is necessary to introduce new measures to quantify the difference of the dynamics of the ensemble members. We propose a tool that supports the interactive visual analysis of time-varying feature-vector ensembles. A core component of our tool allows for the interactive definition and refinement of new measures that can then be used to understand the system's behavior and compare the ensemble members. Different visualizations support the user in finding a characteristic measure for the system. By visualizing the user-defined measure, the user can then investigate the parameter dependencies and gain insights into the relationship between input parameters and simulation output.