R Marries NetLogo: Introduction to the RNetLogo Package

The RNetLogo package delivers an interface to embed the agent-based modeling platform NetLogo into the R environment with headless (no graphical user interface) or interactive GUI mode. It provides functions to load models, execute commands, push values, and to get values from NetLogo reporters. Such a seamless integration of a widely used agent-based modeling platform with a well-known statistical computing and graphics environment opens up various possibilities. For example, it enables the modeler to design simulation experiments, store simulation results, and analyze simulation output in a more systematic way. It can therefore help close the gaps in agent-based modeling regarding standards of description and analysis. After a short overview of the agent-based modeling approach and the software used here, the paper delivers a step-by-step introduction to the usage of the RNetLogo package by examples.

[1]  R Core Team,et al.  R: A language and environment for statistical computing. , 2014 .

[2]  Alison J. Heppenstall,et al.  Crime reduction through simulation: An agent-based model of burglary , 2010, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[3]  Thomas Petzoldt,et al.  simecol : An Object-Oriented Framework for Ecological Modeling in R , 2007 .

[4]  Charles M. Macal,et al.  Multiscale agent-based consumer market modeling , 2010 .

[5]  Hong Wan,et al.  Efficient experimental design tools for exploring large simulation models , 2009, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[6]  J. Gareth Polhill,et al.  Agent-based land-use models: a review of applications , 2007, Landscape Ecology.

[7]  Rosaria Conte,et al.  From Simulation to Theory (and Backward) , 2009, EPOS.

[8]  Clara Prats,et al.  Individual-based Modelling: An Essential Tool for Microbiology , 2008, Journal of biological physics.

[9]  Andrew Reeson,et al.  Agent‐based modeling in ecological economics , 2010, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[10]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  On agent-based software engineering , 2000, Artif. Intell..

[11]  Roberto Leombruni,et al.  Industry and labor dynamics : the agent-based computational economics approach : proceedings of the Wild@ace2003 workshop, Torino, Italy, 3-4 October 2003 , 2004 .

[12]  Adrian Bowman,et al.  rpanel: Simple Interactive Controls for R Functions Using the tcltk Package , 2007 .

[13]  M. Macy,et al.  FROM FACTORS TO ACTORS: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling , 2002 .

[14]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Introduction to multiagent systems , 2001 .

[15]  Eugénio Oliveira,et al.  APPLICATIONS OF INTELLIGENT AGENT-BASED SYSTEMS , 2007 .

[16]  Gábor Csárdi,et al.  The igraph software package for complex network research , 2006 .

[17]  Hans Moonen,et al.  Multi-Agent Systems for Transportation Planning and Coordination , 2009 .

[18]  Edzer J. Pebesma,et al.  Multivariable geostatistics in S: the gstat package , 2004, Comput. Geosci..

[19]  Blake LeBaron,et al.  Agent-based computational finance : Suggested readings and early research , 2000 .

[20]  Jaime Simão Sichman,et al.  MAS and Social Simulation: A Suitable Sommitment , 1998, MABS.

[21]  William N. Venables,et al.  Modern Applied Statistics with S , 2010 .

[22]  G. Nigel Gilbert,et al.  Agent-Based Models , 2007 .

[23]  David R. C. Hill,et al.  Declarative task delegation in OpenMOLE , 2010, 2010 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation.

[24]  Michael J. North,et al.  Experiences creating three implementations of the repast agent modeling toolkit , 2006, TOMC.

[25]  Alain F. Zuur,et al.  A Beginner's Guide to R , 2009 .

[26]  Joshua M. Epstein,et al.  Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up , 1996 .

[27]  William N. Venables,et al.  An Introduction To R , 2004 .

[28]  Michael Luck,et al.  Agent technology: Enabling next generation computing , 2003 .

[29]  Francesco C. Billari,et al.  Agent based computational demography: using simulation to improve our understanding of demographic behaviour , 2003 .

[30]  Volker Grimm,et al.  NetLogo meets R: Linking agent-based models with a toolbox for their analysis , 2010, Environ. Model. Softw..

[31]  Robert Kabacoff,et al.  R in Action , 2011 .

[32]  Kishori Sharan.  Java Native Interface , 2014 .

[33]  L. Tesfatsion.  Agent-based computational economics : A constructive approach to economic theory , 2006 .

[34]  T. Schelling.  Models of Segregation , 1969 .

[35]  Gerhard Weiss,et al.  Multiagent Systems , 1999 .

[36]  Weiming Shen,et al.  Applications of agent-based systems in intelligent manufacturing: An updated review , 2006, Adv. Eng. Informatics.

[37]  E. Pebesma,et al.  Classes and Methods for Spatial Data , 2015 .

[38]  D. DeAngelis,et al.  Individual-based modeling of ecological and evolutionary processes , 2005 .

[39]  Steven F. Railsback,et al.  Agent-Based and Individual-Based Modeling: A Practical Introduction , 2011 .

[40]  Steven F. Railsback,et al.  Individual-based modeling and ecology , 2005 .

[41]  Friedrich Leisch,et al.  Sweave: Dynamic Generation of Statistical Reports Using Literate Data Analysis , 2002, COMPSTAT.

[42]  J H Maindonald,et al.  Using R for Data Analysis and Graphics Introduction, Code and Commentary , 2004 .

[43]  Nigel Gilbert,et al.  Simulation: A New Way of Doing Social Science , 1999 .

[44]  Gerhard Weiss,et al.  Multiagent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence , 1999 .

[45]  Jasmina Arifovic.  Genetic algorithm learning and the cobweb model , 1994 .

[46]  Graham K. Rand,et al.  Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences , 1983 .

[47]  F. Squazzoni.  The Impact of Agent-Based Models in the Social Sciences after 15 Years of Incursions , 2010 .

[48]  Pádraig Cunningham,et al.  Software agents: A review , 1997 .

[49]  C. Stanish,et al.  An Agent-based Model of Prehistoric Settlement Patterns and Political Consolidation in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru and Bolivia , 2007 .

[50]  V. Grimm.  Ten years of individual-based modelling in ecology: what have we learned and what could we learn in the future? , 1999 .

[51]  Carl Hewitt,et al.  Viewing Control Structures as Patterns of Passing Messages , 1977, Artif. Intell..

[52]  William Rand,et al.  An Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling: Modeling Natural, Social, and Engineered Complex Systems with NetLogo , 2015 .

[53]  Lisa Sattenspiel,et al.  The design and use of an agent‐based model to simulate the 1918 influenza epidemic at Norway House, Manitoba , 2009, American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council.