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Ant Lab 1
Ants are wonderfully simple things that can behave in complex ways (kind of like a computer)! So why not see if we can program a simulation of some ants randomly walking around. As long as they don't know where food is, they will keep walking, and after short while, they will randomly change their direction.
Next we need to give them some knowledge. When they detect food, they will record the location of the food, and just go back and forth from their AntHill
to the the Food
supply. When the Food
runs out, they will forget the location, and go back into random walking, like before.
Finally, we will want to give them some communication skills. If they encounter another Ant
, they will share any information about food. (Maybe later you can make a subclass of Ant
called GeniusAnt
that will remember more than one food source, but for right now, an Ant
can only remember one thing at a time). You can always enhance your simulation by adding obstacles or ants from another colony that will fight with, or make a QueenAnt
so your colony can make another colony.