Ants is a test simulation of an ant colony written in JavaScript. It demonstrates many of the capabilities for developing simulations.
Intuitive graphics
Realistic animation
Emergent behavior
User interaction
Flexible and intuitive metrics visualization
Whereas Excel/VBA solutions have benefits in terms of data manipulation. Web-based solutions are more deployable. Many programming languages provide similar functionality. Those that provide basic simulation features can be used to simulate and analyze complex systems.
Instructions
Select the Start Simulation button to start the ants search for food.
Once running, select the Stop Simulation button to pause the simulation.
Select the Hide Ants button to hide the ants which speeds up the simulation.
Once hidden, select the Show Ants button to show the ants.
Drag the apple icon to move the food source.
Drag the hole icon to move the home base for the ants.
Click on the board to make barriers that will make the ants try to find ways around them.
Click on a barrier square to remove it.
Click on the Remove All Barriers button to remove all barriers.
Select a Color board by: option to color the board by various statistics.
Select the Reset Visit Stats to reset the ant visit count statistics on the board.
Use the browser's page refresh control to restart the simulation.
