Simulation
 
On this page you can find a prototype of applet of an artificial anthill. This is a quite simple and not very realistic simulation. It's an adaptation of another applet found on the Internet. It deals about termites but the general term should be agent that means an "object" that is able to define it's behaviour (at least partly) from information taken from the environment. In the original applet, the world consist of 2 different kinds of objects: agents and inert objects. Termites were the agents and wood the inert objects. They were located on a rectangle. More exactly they were on a tore that is like a tire. What that means is if a termite leaves the field by the right side, it appears just after on the left. Each termite that has no knowledge about the other, had to follow 3 simple rules:
  • walk randomly
  • take wood that is in front if the termite has no wood already
  • put the wood if there is another one in front of

In the applet presented hereafter, we have not only wood but also strawberries and cheese. We called the agents ants and we improved the graphics. The rule was adapted to take and put the same inert object. We also added walls around and in the middle of the world.

Even if you have no Java virtual machine or have some problem to run the applet here are 4 snapshots take from the same simulation at different times. Green represents grass, yellow cheese, red strawberries. Ants are black, the walls are red and black. The size of the pictures is reduced to have a better overview.

simul t1 simul t2>t1
Simulation at time t1 just at the begining, wood, strawberries, cheese and ants are placed randomly across the plane. Simulation at time t2>t1. You can see than it's more structured than at t1
simul t3>t2 simul t4>t3
Simulation at time t3>t2 it's more structured. Simulation at time t4>t3. At present we are able to distinguish 4 packets: one with cheese, one with wood and two with strawberries.

Down, should be the applet running. If you are under Windows, browse this page with Netscape rather than IE, it will be about twice faster.


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