An agent-based computational framework for simulation of competing hostile planet-wide populations

The increase in readily available computational power raises the possibility that robust agent-based modeling can play a productive role in the analysis of population dynamics. Accordingly, the objective of this work is to develop a robust agent based computational framework to investigate the emergent structure of initially intermeshed hostile, competing, populations on a global scale. Specifically, we develop a model based on discrete entities (agents), each with their own interaction rules with their immediate neighbors, innate skill sets, reproductive rates, mobility and lifespans to represent a population. The global population is then allowed to evolve according to these local rules over many generations. The biological systems-level applications are numerous, stemming from human conflict on the macroscale to microbes on the microscale. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the model construction and the results of such an approach. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.