A spatial prisoner’s dilemma model with mobile agents, de-coupled birth-death events, and harsh environments.

This model simulates the emergence of a dual market structure from firm-level interaction. Firms are profit-seeking, and demand is represented by a unimodal distribution of consumers along a set of taste positions.

This a model developed as a part of the paper Mejía, G. & García-Díaz, C. (2018). Market-level effects of firm-level adaptation and intermediation in networked markets of fresh foods: a case study in Colombia. Agricultural Systems 160: 132-142.

It simulates the competition dynamics of the potato market in Bogotá, Colombia. The model explores the economic impact of intermediary actors on the potato supply chain.

This model inspects the performance of firms as the product attribute space changes, which evolves as a consequence of firms’ actions. Firms may create new product variants by dragging demand from other existing variants. Firms decide whether to open new product variants, to invade existing ones, or to keep their variant portfolio. At each variant there is a Cournot competition each round. Competition is nested since many firms compete at many variants simultaneously, affecting firm composition at each location (variant).

After the Cournot outcomes, at each round firms decide whether to (i) keep their existing product variant niche, (ii) invade an existing variant, (iii) create a new variant, or (iv) abandon a variant. Firms’ profits across their niche take into consideration the niche-width cost and the cost of opening a new variant.

Agent-based models of organizational search have long investigated how exploitative and exploratory behaviors shape and affect performance on complex landscapes. To explore this further, we build a series of models where agents have different levels of expertise and cognitive capabilities, so they must rely on each other’s knowledge to navigate the landscape. Model A investigates performance results for efficient and inefficient networks. Building on Model B, it adds individual-level cognitive diversity and interaction based on knowledge similarity. Model C then explores the performance implications of coordination spaces. Results show that totally connected networks outperform both hierarchical and clustered network structures when there are clear signals to detect neighbor performance. However, this pattern is reversed when agents must rely on experiential search and follow a path-dependent exploration pattern.

We represent commuters and their preferences for transportation cost, time and safety. Agents assess their options via their preferences, their environment, and the modes available. The model has policy levers to test impact on last-mile problem.

This MAS simulates the traffic of Barcelona Eixample. Uses a centralized AI system in order to control the traffic lights. Car agents are reactive and have no awareness of the intelligence of the system. They (try to) avoid collisions.

Non-traditional tools and mediums can provide unique methodological and interpretive opportunities for archaeologists. In this case, the Unreal Engine (UE), which is typically used for games and media, has provided a powerful tool for non-programmers to engage with 3D visualization and programming as never before. UE has a low cost of entry for researchers as it is free to download and has user-friendly “blueprint” tools that are visual and easily extendable. Traditional maritime mobility in the Salish Sea is examined using an agent-based model developed in blueprints. Focusing on the sea canoe travel of the Straits Salish northwestern Washington State and southwest British Columbia. This simulation integrates GIS data to assess travel time between Coast Salish archaeological village locations and archaeologically represented resource gathering areas. Transportation speeds informed by ethnographic data were used to examine travel times for short forays and longer inter-village journeys. The results found that short forays tended to half day to full day trips when accounting for resource gathering activities. Similarly, many locations in the Salish Sea were accessible in long journeys within two to three days, assuming fair travel conditions. While overall transportation costs to reach sites may be low, models such as these highlight the variability in transport risk and cost. The integration of these types of tools, traditionally used for entertainment, can increase the accessibility of modeling approaches to researchers, be expanded to digital storytelling, including aiding in the teaching of traditional ecological knowledge and placenames, and can have wide applications beyond maritime archaeology.

This is v0.01 of a UE5.2.1 agent based model.

This model illustrates actor interaction in the construction sector, according to information gathered in NL. It offers a simple frame to represent diverse interests, interdependencies and effects on the number of built sustainable houses.

Least Cost Path (LCP) analysis is a recurrent theme in spatial archaeology. Based on a cost of movement image, the user can interpret how difficult it is to travel around in a landscape. This kind of analysis frequently uses GIS tools to assess different landscapes. This model incorporates some aspects of the LCP analysis based on GIS with the capabilities of agent-based modeling, such as the possibility to simulate random behavior when moving. In this model the agent will travel around the coastal landscape of Southern Brazil, assessing its path based on the different cost of travel through the patches. The agents represent shellmound builders (sambaquieiros), who will travel mainly through the use of canoes around the lagoons.

How it works?
When the simulation starts the hiker agent moves around the world, a representation of the lagoon landscape of the Santa Catarina state in Southern Brazil. The agent movement is based on the travel cost of each patch. This travel cost is taken from a cost surface raster created in ArcMap to represent the different cost of movement around the landscape. Each tick the agent will have a chance to select the best possible patch to move in its Field of View (FOV) that will take it towards its target destination. If it doesn’t select the best possible patch, it will randomly choose one of the patches to move in its FOV. The simulation stops when the hiker agent reaches the target destination. The elevation raster file and the cost surface map are based on a 1 Arc-second (30m) resolution SRTM image, scaled down 5 times. Each patch represents a square of 150m, with an area of 0,0225km². The dataset uses a UTM Sirgas 2000 22S projection system. There are four different cost functions available to use. They change the cost surface used by the hikers to navigate around the world.