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A Multi-agent Based Migration Model for Evolving Cooperation in the Spatial N-Player Snowdrift Game

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PRIMA 2013: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8291))

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in using agent-based simulation models to investigate the evolution of cooperative behaviour in spatial evolutionary games. However, the relationship between individual player mobility (or migration) and population dynamics is not clear. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of alternative migration mechanisms in the spatial N-player Snowdrift game. Here, agents occupy sites in a two-dimensional toroidal lattice. Specific game instances are created by nominating N sites from each of the local neighbourhoods. We use a genetic algorithm to evolve agent game-playing strategies. In addition, agents have an opportunity to migrate to different sites in the lattice at regular intervals. Key parameters in our model include the migration rate, the actual dispersal distance, the “take-over” scheme, the group size N, and the relative cost-to-benefit ratio of the game. Detailed simulation experiments show that the proposed model is able to promote cooperation in a population of mobile agents. However, the magnitude of the dispersal distance plays a significant role in determining population dynamics. Our findings help to further understand how migratory (mobility) patterns affect evolutionary processes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Design, Communication and Information Technology, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Raymond Chiong

  2. Department of Computing and Information Systems, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Michael Kirley

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  1. Raymond Chiong
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  2. Michael Kirley
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica,, Università degli Studi di Torino, via Pessinetto 12,, 10149, Torino, Italy

    Guido Boella

  2. Division of Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

    Edith Elkind

  3. Department of Information Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Bastin Tony Roy Savarimuthu  & Martin K. Purvis  & 

  4. Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Frank Dignum

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Chiong, R., Kirley, M. (2013). A Multi-agent Based Migration Model for Evolving Cooperation in the Spatial N-Player Snowdrift Game. In: Boella, G., Elkind, E., Savarimuthu, B.T.R., Dignum, F., Purvis, M.K. (eds) PRIMA 2013: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems. PRIMA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8291. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-44927-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-44927-7_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-44926-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-44927-7

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