ants/shortlist.md

SHORTLIST

• nonlinear response to concentration of pheromones (with upper and lower threshold) -> needs a separation of sensitivity and internal energy

More chaos

• what happens if you disrupt the trail with an obstacle?
• limited node capacity

Model setup

Agents

• previous_position
• position
• sensitivity
• internal energy
• pheromone drop rate (A/B)
• what chemical we´re looking for
• optional: how much food we have with us (and decrement to prevent dying if energy is low)
• alpha

step function

• probablistic forward step based on concentrations and sensitvity
  • follow highest concentration probabilistically and be random otherwise
• drop pheromones
• have we found food -> change behaviour and decrease food amount + reset stuff
• are we at the nest (having found food)? -> recruit new ants + reset stuff
• decrement sensitivity
• decrement energy (optional: only without food)
  • do i need to die

Model

hexagonal grid

- pheromone a/b concentration
- nest location
- food location/concentration
- for later: node capacity

• N total ants
• a few other constants which need to be set

step

advance ants (call ants step function)
decrease pheromone concentration on grid