GoAPE: AN INTERACTIVE MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION TOOL FOR ART AND SCIENCE

Written by Jonas BOESCH, Daniel BISIG on 15 December 2006. Posted in Special issue: Studying Communication In Animals, Guest Editor: Alina S. RUSU, Volume IX, Nr. 3

Abstract:

The "goApe" project aims at establishing an interactive, generic, fully customisable multi-agent simulation environment, which is easily adaptable to a wide variety of experimental setups, including setups for studying communicational processes in animals and humans. The functionality of the simulation environment supports 2D and 3D worlds with continuous space and time, the absence or inclusion of realistic physics, modern 3D visualization facilities, as well as extensive logging capabilities. Furthermore, the simulation environment can be interactively controlled via both conventional and custom developed hardware interfaces. An important focus of the "goApe" software is to provide easy access to its programming interface for scientists with little programming experience without hindering advanced programmers. The entire software is open source and free.

Keywords: artificial life, agent based simulation, interactive installation