Towards an Extensible Generic Agent-Based Simulator for Mammals
Stephen Carse, Karen Bradshaw · 2015
Modelling tools are widely used by national parks, both within South Africa and in countries around the world. The modelling of animal behaviour, particularly in South Africa and other African countries, is well established. These models, however, tend to be developed with one particular application and species in mind and are not reusable in other scenarios, requiring further development work for the addition of another species. This paper presents an approach towards developing an agent-based generic system that simulates a range of mammal behaviours by building a set of core behaviours that can be parameterised according to the needs of each species. The system uses XML notation for the definition of a species and provides a GUI tool that produces the XML required to simulate a species and set up the initial animals present in the simulation. Various feedback tools allow the simulation to be examined and analysed in detail to ascertain the success of the simulation of the mammal behaviours and those behaviours' adaptation to various different species.