Agent Based Spatial Simulation With Netlogo Volume 2

Agent-based Spatial Simulation with NetLogo 2 Agent-based Spatial Simulation with NetLogo 2 Advanced Concepts Edited by Arnaud Banos Christophe Lang Nicolas Marilleau Introduction The NetLogo platform is perfect for rapidly and effectively prototyping simple models. Volume 1, Agent-based Spatial Simulation with NetLogo 1, specifically focused on this remarkable quality [BAN 15a]. NetLogo also houses a number of commonly unexpected and underestimated resources that fully justify its status as a platform for agent-based modeling and simulation. These resources take two different forms. External resources allow specialized extensions to be directly constructed and/or exploited from within NetLogo, and allow NetLogo to be dynamically coupled with other libraries, software programs or platforms. The second form, more typically consisting of internal resources, arises from the suitability of NetLogo, its language and its architecture for developing models that are intrinsically more advanced. The objective of this second book is to give an educational presentation of these two important dimensions of agent-based spatial simulation with NetLogo. Readers will be offered a slightly atypical and unconventional presentation of NetLogo that emphasizes the aspect of being an open simulation environment (Chapter 1). Chapters 2–5 explore in depth the opportunities for extending and coupling NetLogo presented in the first chapter, situating them within a number of fundamental perspectives. Chapter written by Arnaud BANOS, Christophe L ANG and Nicolas M ARILLEAU. The scientific material this book relies on was developed within various research and pedagogic projects, which benefited from the financial or logistic support of several institutions: Mission pour l’interdisciplinarité du CNRS/PEPS HUMAIN CNRS (http://www.cnrs.fr/mi/spip.php?article193), LabeX DynamiTe (http://labex-dynamite.com/ en/the-labex/), ISC-PIF (https://iscpif.fr/), RNSC (http://rnsc.csregistry.org/), MAPS Network (http://maps.hypotheses.org/). x Agent-based Spatial Simulation with NetLogo 2 Chapter 2 discusses the question of multiscale modeling, with applications in road traffic management, and Chapter 3 focuses on coupling macro and micro models based on networks, with applications in spatial epidemiology. Chapter 4 explores the notion of network in much more depth, considering fundamental principles of graph theory but also more advanced features like dynamic graphs. Chapter 5 focuses on solving so-called “swarm” problems. Finally, Chapter 6 brings the book to a close by presenting a number of protocols for exploring complex models in NetLogo. In the same spirit as Volume 1, this second volume includes examples of NetLogo code and GitHub links for each of the models encountered. To be read and reread without moderation! 1 NetLogo, an Open Simulation Environment 1.1. Introduction to extensions in NetLogo NetLogo is a generic simulation environment in the sense that it was not designed with any specific domain of application in mind. NetLogo offers a wide range of features and generic operators to its users. Additionally, to make up for any missing features, NetLogo is compatible with other platforms and libraries, as we will demonstrate throughout this book. There is a vast library of extensions available to users, allowing them to integrate additional functionality that is not present in the native version of NetLogo, but which might nonetheless be necessary for the development of a given model. An official library of extensions is available on the official NetLogo Website. We will explore some of these extensions later in this chapter. But many modelers have also developed their own extensions to tackle specific problems that are of interest to them. These extensions are developed with an open Java API. We wi