CSCE 782: Problem Set 1

Due: Tuesday, 7 September 2004, before class.

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Figure 1: A screenshot of the traffic simulator built by Dresner and Stone. There is a functioning version of this Java applet at the multiagent traffic management page of the authors.

Multiagent Traffic Management Simulation

For this problem set you will implement in NetLogo a traffic simulator and the reservation mechanism presented in

Your simulator should reproduce the results presented in the paper. Specifically, it should produce numbers (or graphs) like those seen in Figures 2--8 of the paper. That is, your program will have the following controls:

  1. A choice control for choosing between overpass, traffic light, and reservation.
  2. A "% Green N/S (alpha)" slider.
  3. A "% chance to Spawn car" slider.
  4. A "Granularity" slider.
  5. A "number of lanes" slider.
It will also have monitors and plots that show the "average delay" of the cars. In this way, when the sliders are set to particular values then the resulting delay should be the same one as reported on the tables in the paper.

The graphs in the paper (Figures 2-5) were obtained by performing many successive runs with varying values for one or more parameters. You can generate the same plots within NetLogo by creating a procedure with a for-loop(s) that changes the appropriate parameters, runs the model, and adds the results to the plot. This might take a long time to run, that is fine (HINT: you can click on the on/off button on top of the turtle display in order to turn off the display which can really speed up execution).

Finally, do not feel like you need to make any improvements to this solution. The goal of this problem set is simply to reproduce someone else's results and learn some NetLogo in the process. However, you might want to write down those ideas for improvements as they could become your final project.

Other Tips

  1. In NetLogo go to File->Models Library->Sample Models->Social Science->Traffic Base to see a simple example of a traffic simulator. It is a simulation of traffic congestion, but its a possible start.

Submission Instructions

This problem set is to be done individually. You cannot ask or receive help from anyone. As will all the problem sets, you will hand them in using our department's dropbox. You will hand in only one file, your .nlogo file. You will use the information tab of the program for writing your detailed explanation of the techniques you used, how the program works, how to set the controls to obtain the different behaviors you want to show, etc. The information tab needs to start with:

Name:
email: (I will email your grade and comments to this address)

I understand that it is the responsibility of every member of the Carolina community to uphold an maintain the academic standards and integrity of the University of South Carolina. Any member of the University community, who has reasonable grounds to believe that an infraction of the Code of Student Academic Responsibility has occurred, has an obligation to report the alleged violation.

I certify that I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this problem set.


José M. Vidal
Last modified: Fri Aug 20 14:35:56 EDT 2004