Abstract
This chapter provides the reader with a practical introduction to agent-based modeling, via the Repast Simphony programming environment. Using examples of agent-based models from an earlier chapter, we look in detail at how to build models via either flowcharts or Java code. We illustrate some of the ways in which a toolkit such as Repast considerably simplifies the life of the modeler by providing extensive support for model visualization, charting of results, and multiple runs, for instance.
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Notes
- 1.
Strictly speaking, the sorts of agents we shall be concerning ourselves with are called proto-agents in Repast S, where the term agent is reserved for proto-agents that exhibit learning behavior. However, for the sake of consistency with the rest of this book we will not use the term proto-agent.
- 2.
Eclipse should, of course, already have the Repast Simphony plug-ins installed. This version is available from the Repast Simphony web site.
- 3.
Not to be confused with the Properties tab that is used to set values for things like the Label property of contexts and projections.
- 4.
Although note that “agent field” should really be “property” in Repast terminology.
- 5.
Of course, the intermediate variable x could have been avoided altogether by using RandomDraw() directly in its place in the second task.
- 6.
It may be worth noting that it is not necessary in Java to use a get- or set-method when objects of the same type access each other’s properties, regardless of whether they are private or not.
- 7.
Note that when specifying projection positions, the order of parameters should be x then y then z.
- 8.
As we noted in the discussion of Properties in Sect. 3.1, one of the disadvantages of using Only Me as a visibility is that it prevents this kind of useful inspection, as well as editing of agent states.
- 9.
Inheritance is an important and distinctive feature of OO languages. The reader unfamiliar with these concepts should consult an introductory text, such as that by Barnes and Kölling [2].
- 10.
The approach is slightly different in the case of a Network projection as a NetworkBuilder is used instead. The full Repast S documentation provides the detail.
- 11.
If further infectable agents were to be added at some point it would be easy to forget to add knowledge of their distinctive infection periods into InfectableAgent, for instance.
- 12.
Remember to save the Scenario Tree after doing this, otherwise this setting will be lost.
- 13.
A singleton class permits at most one instance of the class to be created.
- 14.
Rather confusingly, a stepped sequence is referred to as a number.
References
Barnes, D.J., Kölling, M.: Objects First with Java—A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, 4th edn. Pearson Education, London (2008)
Foundation, E.: Eclipse integrated development environment (2010). URL http://www.eclipse.org/
Groovy: Groovy—an agile dynamic language for the java platform (2010). URL http://groovy.codehaus.org/
RepastS: Repast agent simulation toolkit (2010). URL http://repast.sourceforge.net/
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Barnes, D.J., Chu, D. (2010). ABMs Using Repast and Java. In: Introduction to Modeling for Biosciences. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-326-8_3
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