The project is concerned with a model of ant foraging. The observational background for the model consists of ants leaving their nets to go and collect food and is described in [365]. The theoretical model is presented in [405].
(a) Make a brief summary of the salient features of the observations described in [365].
(b) Without going into themathematical details,make a brief summary of the structure and focus of the model [405]. Try to sketch the flow of the mechanisms included in the modelling. Now think of the model in terms of the three O’Keeffe–Einstein propositions.
(c) Is the description used by the model viable? Does it include too much or too little detail to be considered ‘realistic’ in the sense of O’Keeffe P1?
(d) Can you think of a way to make the model simpler, as asked by Einstein P2, or would any simplification make the model ‘too simple’?
(e) Reading the Summary, how would you evaluate the model in terms of the third proposition P3. Can you think of potential applications not mentioned by the author?