Agents

A general definition of an agent is an entity which has effectors to manipulate and perceptors to obtain data from the environment [11], along with decision making apparatus to mediate the two. The agents in this simulation can affect the environment using actions, and analyse it using observations (these will be described in detail in sections 3.6 and 3.7). Agents have an age limit and a health total. If an agent's age limit is reached or its health reaches zero it expires, and is removed from the simulation. Agents can mate with other agents to produce offspring. Each offspring contains genetic structure from both its parents (see section 3.9 for further details).

The type of the agents in this simulation are determined by their species. While agents can interact with any other agents, different species of agents' genetic structures are incompatible, so mating between different species is not allowed. The species of an agent defines such things as its initial health and age, and the actions and observations it is able to use. Many statistics taken on the simulation are grouped by species, also. Agents can be constrained to eat only certain types of food.