Ant Foraging - Xholon App (GP)
What is it
This model uses genetic programming (GP) to evolve a solution to the ant foraging problem. The discussion that follows assumes you are generally familiar with GP. If not, see the references later in this document.
There are two parts to this apllication. Xholon performs all the ant behavior, while ECJ evolves new behaviors based on relative fitness.
How to use it
Run it:
- Run the Java application through the XhnEalontro GUI (org.primordion.xholon.app.Xhn.java), and select File --> Open --> ealontro --> AntForaging --> EcjAntForaging_xhn.xml.
- Expand the Controller node in the tree.
- Press the Start node.
- You should see the following text, or something similar, displayed in the console window.
- If you have JFreeChart installed, and if you have selected "JFreeChart" as the value of the UseDataPlotter parameter in EcjAntForaging_xhn.xml, you should see a chart showing the increase in fitness from one generation to the next (0.0 is the ideal fitness). If you don't have JFreeChart installed, then change the value of UseDataPlotter to "gnuplot", and look at the results that are saved to a .csv file in the statistics folder. If you have gnuplot installed, it can read the .plt script in the statistics folder to produce a displayable .png file from the .csv file, that should look similar to the one below.
Opening model: C:\Primordion\workspace\Ealontro\config\ealontro\AntForaging\EcjAntForaging_xhn.xml AppM : false InfoM : false ErrorM : true MaxProcessLoops : 1000 TimeStepInterval : 10 InheritanceHierarchyFile : ./config/ealontro/AntForaging/InheritanceHierarchy.xml CompositeStructureHierarchyFile : ./config/ealontro/AntForaging/EcjCompositeStructureHierarchy.xml ClassDetailsFile : ./config/ealontro/AntForaging/EcjClassDetails.xml JavaClassName : org.primordion.ealontro.ec.app.antforaging.AppEcjAntForaging UseDataPlotter : true SaveSnapshots : false UseGridViewer : true UseGraphicalTreeViewer : false EcjArgs : -file bin/org/primordion/ealontro/ec/app/antforaging/antForaging.params computed worstStandardizedFitness : 144 C:\Primordion\workspace\Ealontro\config\ealontro\AntForaging\EcjAntForaging_xhn.xml | ECJ | An evolutionary computation system (version 15) | By Sean Luke | Contributors: L. Panait, G. Balan, S. Paus, Z. Skolicki, | J. Bassett, R. Hubley, and A. Chircop | URL: http://cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/ecj/ | Mail: ecj-help@cs.gmu.edu | (better: join ECJ-INTEREST at URL above) | Date: April 4, 2006 | Current Java: 1.4.2_10 / Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM-1.4.2_10-b03 | Required Minimum Java: 1.3 Threads: breed/1 eval/1 Seed: 1057144734 Job: 0 Setting up Processing GP Types Processing GP Node Constraints Processing GP Function Sets Processing GP Tree Constraints Initializing Generation 0 Population: 1024 Generation 1 Generation 2 Generation 3 Generation 4 Generation 5 Generation 6 Generation 7 Generation 8 Generation 9 Generation 10 Generation 11 Generation 12 Generation 13 Generation 14 Generation 15 Generation 16 Generation 17 Generation 18 Generation 19 Found Ideal Individual
![ECJ Ant Foraging with GP](AntForaging_GP_JFreeChart_1.png)
Things to notice
Things to try
Extending the model
Xholon and Ealontro features
This is the most advanced example of how best to use both Xholon and ECJ in the same application.