|
![]() |
Introduction to Hunters | [top] |
Hunters is an agent-based artificial society model targeted
for the Microsoft desktop. A population of hunter/gatherer agents, called hunters, must secure food in
order to survive. The Hunter agents can do this by gathering food from the
world around them, or by interacting with other agents.
Hunters have several options when it comes to interacting with each other.
The first option is simply to attack other agents and attempt to steal food
from them. If they manage to defeat their opponents, a hunter stands a lot
to gain by interacting with others in this way. The second option for
interaction is sharing. When agents share, they pool their resources so that
both agents have food. While this may not always be profitable for an
individual agent, it can be very good for the society as a whole. The third
option for interaction is hoarding. When agents hoard, they essentially
ignore other agents and just concentrate on holding onto whatever food they
have.
All of the action takes place in a two-dimensional world of grid cells. Each
grid cell can contain food, an agent, or possibly nothing at all. Each cell
can only contain one item at a time, and every item takes up exactly one
cell. Agents can move about the world, but cannot move into occupied squares
and are not allowed to walk off the edge of the world.
The behavior of the Hunter agents is governed by two factors: individual
learning; and evolution. Individual hunters adjust their action strategies
throughout their lifetime. They adjust their strategies mainly by judging
how successful their actions were in the past. The second factor, evolution,
comes into play when agents die. Agents die when they run out of food, and
end up being replaced by the offspring of more successful agents.
During each round of the simulation, every hunter agent gets a chance to
move, gather food, and interact with other agents. Rounds continue until the
end of a generation is reached. At this point, dead agents are replaced and
a whole new generation begins. The entire simulation runs for a set number
of generations, unless the entire population becomes extinct before that
point is reached.
The purpose of this program is to allow for the study of agent behavior in
artificial societies. The user has the ability to adjust a wide range of
factors that might influence the outcome of the simulation. The program
allows users to view the simulation in action, via a text-based display. The
program also creates two output files to assist in this study, one for
overall demographics, and one that logs agent interactions. This allows
users to study how various factors influence the society.
| |
Hunters Software Description | [top] |
The Hunters software was developed to simulate the artificial society in a
text-based envirnonment. The program allows users to customize many
parameters, which enables the users to adjust the program to their needs and
carry out a wide range of experiments. The parameters are:
After all of the parameters have been entered, the simulation can begin. Users can watch the simulation via a text-based display. This visual representation of the world shows the entire world, plus all of the hunters in it that are currently alive. Each agent is displayed according to its position and its current strategy. The display is updated at the end of each round. The following symbols are used in the display:
After the simulation has finished, the user can find output information in two files:
| |
Hunters Download and Installation | [top] |
To download the Hunters installation files in a zip file (HuntV1.zip,834K), click here. To install the program, unzip the files into a folder and run the file called Setup.exe. Follow the steps to install the program. | |
Hunters Source Code and Implementation Info | [top] |
IMPLEMENTATION: The Hunters program was written using
Visual C++ in Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0. Hunters consists of three source
code files: "Hunters.cpp" (main driver program), "Hunter.h" (header file for
Hunter class), and "Hunter.cpp" (implementation file for Hunter class).
You can download a zip file (Code.zip,13K) containing the source code by clicking here. ALGORITHM AND INNER WORKINGS: The basic algorithm that Hunters runs is as follows:
|
|
Copyright Information | [top] |
The Hunters demo is licensed as open source freeware under the
GNU Public License.
Copyright Andrew Schlei, 2003. Anybody who is interested is allowed to
view, modify, and/or improve upon the code used to produce this
demo, but any software generated using all or part of this code must
be released as open source freeware as well. To view the software
license in its entirety,
go here.
|
|
Feedback | [top] |
You can contact me at aschlei@hotmail.com. I would greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions. |
Copyright © 2003 Andrew Schlei. All Rights Reserved.