I am trying to simulate a robotic lawn mower (like this one) on Netlogo. I would like it finds its way home to recharge itself when the battery is low.
However I cannot find a working solution as I got the error "DISTANCE expected input to be an agent but got NOBODY instead." every time.
I just started studying with Netlogo and would be very happy if someone give me some help finding a solution.
Thanks !
breed [cars car]
cars-own [target]
breed [houses house]
to setup
clear-all
setup-patches
setup-cars
setup-house
reset-ticks
end
to setup-patches
ask patches [set pcolor green] ;;Setup grass patches
ask patches with [ pycor >= -16 and pycor >= 16]
[ set pcolor red ] ;; setup a red frame stopping the lawn mower
ask patches with [ pycor <= -16 and pycor <= 16]
[ set pcolor red ]
ask patches with [ pxcor >= -16 and pxcor >= 16]
[ set pcolor red ]
ask patches with [ pxcor <= -16 and pxcor <= 16]
[ set pcolor red ]
end
to setup-cars
create-cars 1 [
setxy 8 8
set target one-of houses
]
end
to setup-house
set-default-shape houses "house"
ask patch 7 8 [sprout-houses 1]
end
to place-walls ;; to choose obstacles with mouse clicks
if mouse-down? [
ask patch mouse-xcor mouse-ycor [ set pcolor red ]
display
]
end
to go
move-cars
cut-grass
check-death ;; Vérify % battery.
tick
end
to move-cars
ask cars
[
ifelse [pcolor] of patch-ahead 1 = red
[ lt random-float 360 ] ;; cant go on red as it is a wall
[ fd 1 ] ;; otherwise go
set energy energy - 1
]
tick
end
to cut-grass
ask cars [
if pcolor = green [
set pcolor gray
]
]
end
to check-death ;; check battery level
ask cars [
ifelse energy >= 150
[set label "energy ok"]
[if distance target = 0
[ set target one-of houses
face target ]
;; move towards target. once the distance is less than 1,
;; use move-to to land exactly on the target.
ifelse distance target < 1
[ move-to target ]
[ fd 1 ]
]
]
end
Looks like the issue is due to the fact that you setup-cars
before you setup-houses
- there is therefore no house
for the new car
to set as its target. You can change the order of the setup calls, or you can change if distance target = 0
to if target = nobody
, or you can do something like the following, where the turtle will just choose the nearest house as its target when energy drops below 0:
to check-death
ask cars [
ifelse energy >= 150
[ set label "Energy ok" ]
[ set target min-one-of houses [distance myself]
face target
ifelse distance target < 1
[ move-to target ]
[ fd 1 ]
]
]
end
As a side note, if you plan on expanding the model to include more mowers you may want to make energy
a turtle variable. If you plan on making the world bigger, you may also want to change your frame setup slightly to dynamically scale- something like:
to setup-patches
ask patches [set pcolor green] ;;Setup grass patches
ask patches with [
pxcor = max-pxcor or
pxcor = min-pxcor or
pycor = max-pycor or
pycor = min-pycor ] [
set pcolor red
]
end