Courses/CS 461/Winter 2006/Jesse Zwerling/Homework 2
From CSWiki
Homework 2:
Wolf-sheep predation:
1. Emergent Behavior - The most obvious emergent behavior is a stable ecosystem, one where all the animals and plants eat and are eaten, but no species dies out completely; if the initial settings are set in the proper manner.
Another emergent behavior is the relationship between the population size between species:
In this particular run, surges in grass population precede surges in sheep populations
Here, the grass and sheep populations seem to have an almost inverse relationship. I would explain the same to be true for the relationship between the wolf and sheep populations, but this is not the case.
2. Agent behavior - The grass grows. The sheep agents gain energy units from grass, move, reproduce, and die. The wolf agents gain energy units from eating the sheep, move, reproduce, and die.
3. The agent behaviors can lead to a stable system, if the initial settings are correct. Otherwise, one or more species can die out. The agent behavior is a simplified version of real animal behavior, in that each animal is concerned with its own survival, not the survival of other species, even when it needs other species to survivie.
Traffic Basic:
1. Emergent Behavior - depressingly accurate depiction of freeway traffic. Slowdowns seem to propagate throught the system like waves.
2. Agent Behavior - each car slows down when there is a another car within a certain distance in front of it. Each car speeds up when the way ahead is clear.
3. The wave propogation effect is an interesting result of the agent behaviors. Once a car is forced to slow down, the car behind it will be forced to slow, which will slow down the one after that, creating the effect.
Flocking:
1. Emergent behavior - individual birds eventually form larger flocks. Birds that are members of flocks seem to maintain a set distance from each other.
2. Agent behavior - each agent is controlled by three rules: The tend to align themselves to nearby birds, they turn to avoid a nearby bird if it gets too close, and they will move close to nearby birds until they get close enough to trigger the avoidance behavior.
3. These three simple behaviors cause the birds to form large flocks and all fly in the same direction, without the need for a leader to 'lead' the flock.
