Cops and Robbers Modeling Assignment
For three weeks, Anwesha and I worked on the Cops and Robbers modeling assignment.
We had to build an Agent Model which we built using AgentSheets, and a systems model using Excel.
After working for a long time, we present it to you now.
The goal of this project was to understand the differences between agent models and system models.
In the cops and robbers model specifically, we had to figure out how the transfer of money in the town of Mayberry worked, and how to make the citizens have the most money in the end.
In the town of Mayberry, there are cops, citizens, robbers, and banks. The citizens deposit and withdraw money from the bank, they get robbed by the robbers, and they receive money after 30 days. The robbers steal money from the citizens and the banks, but when they run into a cop, the cop takes all of their money. The cops take money from the robbers, and they deposit all the money they took from the robbers into the bank.
Our client, the police chief of Mayberry, wanted us to show him how money was being exchanged in Mayberry. We were supposed to build an agent model and a systems model to show him how money went around the town. We display our findings and conclusion here:
1. Are the results between the two models substantially different?
Yes, the results are substantially different.
2. Which model do you think is more helpful solving this problem? Why?
We think that in this situation, the AgentSheets model works better because it realistically shows the transfer of money between each person within the model. It's also easier to understand, and change variables is easy on the AgentSheets Model.
3. What are some advantages and disadvantages of each modeling style?
An advantage of the AgentSheets model is that you can clearly see the transactions between each agent;
an advantage of the Excel model is that you can clearly see the patterns and relations between each person.
However, they each have their disadvtanges-- for example, in AgentSheets you can't find an average for each run you do-- the results you get are just for one trial.
On Excel, you are unable to see the transactions between each person, and the formulas written to demonstrate the AgentSheets model may not always include the interactions or the chance of meeting certain people at certain times.
4. What was the most challenging part to implement? Why?
The Excel model was the most challenging part of the whole project, because it was difficult to take everything we did on the AgentSheets model and transfer it into numbers and formulas.
What part of your model are you most proud of?
We are proud of everything because it was very challenging, but in the end we were able to figure it all out and put it together.
Here is a screenshot of our Excel model!
The applet version of our AgentSheets model can be found here .