Random Walk Left Right

1 collaborator

Uri Wilensky (Author)

WHAT IS IT?

This is a model to simulate a random walk. In this simulation, all turtles walk to the left and forward or they walk to the right and forward. The turtles randomly choose between either direction each time they move.

The path traced out by the turtles moving in this pattern is called a lattice.

HOW IT WORKS

As the simulation continues, one can expect the turtles to become more spread out. Observe the kinds of patterns that develop as the turtles move.

Shading of turtles is representative of how many turtles share that location. Dark shades imply more turtles. Light shades imply fewer turtles.

For purposes of this simulation, "forward" will mean moving toward the top of the view, "left" will mean moving toward the left edge of the view, and "right" will mean moving toward the right edge of the view.

HOW TO USE IT

Use the NUMBER-OF-TURTLES slider to select how many turtles will participate in the random walk.

Use the NUMBER-OF-STEPS slider to decide how many steps a turtle will take on each turn.

How steps are implemented:

If NUMBER-OF-STEPS is set to 1 and a turtle is going left, it will go left one step and then go forward one step. (Imagine a turtle walking along the bottom and left edge of a 1 x 1 square.)
If NUMBER-OF-STEPS is set to 4 and a turtle is going left, it will go left four steps and then go forward four steps. (Imagine a turtle walking along the bottom and left edge of a 4 x 4 square.)
Each of the above movements would be considered a single "pace."

Use the TURTLE-TRAILS? switch to have the turtles put their pens down to trace their paths and show the part of the lattice they are covering. This switch must be set before the SETUP button is pressed.

All sliders except NUMBER-OF-TURTLES may be changed during a simulation.

Press the SETUP when all of the above selections have been made. This will create the selected number of turtles at the bottom center of the world.

Press GO ONCE button to make the turtles move one pace.

Press the GO button to make the turtles move until one of the turtles cannot complete its number of steps. When one turtle reaches this point, all the other turtles will stop even if they can complete the step.

To stop the simulation while it is running, press the GO button again.

The gray bar in the middle of the world is at xcor = 0. This is where all the turtles start.

THINGS TO TRY

Try to answer the questions below before running the simulations.

Record your predictions. Compare your predicted results with the actual results.

What reasoning led you to correct predictions?
What assumptions that you made need to be revised?

Try different numbers of turtles while keeping all other slider values the same.

Try different numbers of steps while keeping all other slider values the same.

THINGS TO NOTICE

Think about how you would define an "average" turtle and an "average" walk.

Where would you expect an average turtle to end up at the end of the simulation? Why?

How many paces would you expect there to be in an average walk? Why?

What kinds of calculations or measurements would you use in trying to answer these questions?

How do your answers to the above questions compare to the average of the x coordinates of all the turtles?

EXTENDING THE MODEL

As the model stands, it plots two lines (right and left) over time. Another way to look at this simulation is to plot the distribution of turtles. Create a histogram to show this type of data.

The turtles will stop if they come up to an obstacle (cannot move forward or to the right/left), give the turtles the ability to think ahead and choose a different step/direction.

Give the turtles the ability to walk backwards.

Create a three dimensional lattice.

NETLOGO FEATURES

Since turtles in this model only move in the positive direction and they start at the bottom the origin is relocated to be at the bottom of the view also, so there are no patches with negative pycor.

RELATED MODELS

Random Walk 360, Galton Box, Binomial Rabbits

HOW TO CITE

If you mention this model in a publication, we ask that you include these citations for the model itself and for the NetLogo software:

Wilensky, U. (1997). NetLogo Random Walk Left Right model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/RandomWalkLeftRight. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Commercial licenses are also available. To inquire about commercial licenses, please contact Uri Wilensky at uri@northwestern.edu.

This model was created as part of the project: CONNECTED MATHEMATICS: MAKING SENSE OF COMPLEX PHENOMENA THROUGH BUILDING OBJECT-BASED PARALLEL MODELS (OBPML). The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (Applications of Advanced Technologies Program) -- grant numbers RED #9552950 and REC #9632612.

This model was converted to NetLogo as part of the projects: PARTICIPATORY SIMULATIONS: NETWORK-BASED DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS and/or INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND MODELING ENVIRONMENT. The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (REPP & ROLE programs) -- grant numbers REC #9814682 and REC-0126227. Converted from StarLogoT to NetLogo, 2002.

Comments and Questions

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Click to Run Model

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; variable declarations ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

globals
[
  num-turtles-right  ;; how many turned right this tick
  num-turtles-left   ;; how many turned left this tick
  sum-right-turns  ;; the sum of turtles that turned right for the entire run
  sum-left-turns   ;; the sum of turtles that turned left for the entire run
]

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; setup procedures ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; sets up the patches and creates turtles

to setup
  clear-all
  ask patches [ set pcolor gray + 3 ]
  draw-line-up-middle
  setup-turtles
  init-vars
  reset-ticks
end 

;; draw a line up the middle

to draw-line-up-middle
  crt 1
  [
    set heading 0
    set pen-size 3
    set pcolor 8
    pd
    fd world-height
    die
  ]
end 

;; determines the number of turtles and their color
;; if turtle-trails? is on, the turtles' pens should be down,
;; otherwise they should be up

to setup-turtles
  ;; the origin is at the bottom of the view so there is no need
  ;; to relocate the turtles upon creation
  crt number-of-turtles
  [
    set color black
    set pen-size 3
    ifelse turtle-trails?
      [ pd ]  ;; have the turtles put down their pens
      [ pu ]  ;; have the turtles pick up their pens
    set heading 0
  ]
end 

;; counts the number of right and left turns and paces of the turtles

to init-vars
  set sum-right-turns 0
  set sum-left-turns 0
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; runtime procedures ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; have the turtles randomly pick either right or left and
;; have them move in that direction
;; if one turtle cannot move, then stop

to go

  set num-turtles-right 0  ;; the number of turtles turning right currently
  set num-turtles-left 0   ;; the number of turtles turning left currently

  ;; if one turtles cannot move because it is at the edge of the world, then stop
  if any? turtles with
       [ patch-at 0 number-of-steps = nobody or
         patch-at (- number-of-steps) 0 = nobody or
         patch-at number-of-steps 0 = nobody ]
    [ stop ]

  ask turtles
  [
    ifelse ((random 2) = 0)
    [
      go-left
      set num-turtles-left (num-turtles-left + 1)
    ]
    [
      go-right
      set num-turtles-right (num-turtles-right + 1)
    ]

    ;; set the color of the turtles to give a rough idea of how many turtles
    ;; are at each location -- the lighter the color, the greater the number
    ;; of turtles
    set color scale-color blue (count turtles-here) (number-of-turtles / 5) 0
  ]
  ;; update the sums of right and left turns
  set sum-right-turns (sum-right-turns + num-turtles-right)
  set sum-left-turns (sum-left-turns + num-turtles-left)
  tick
end 

;; turn left and go one-pace

to go-left  ;; turtle procedure
  lt 90
  one-pace
end 

;; go forward number-of-steps, turn upwards and go forward number-of-steps

to one-pace  ;; turtle procedure
  fd number-of-steps
  set heading 0
  fd number-of-steps
end 

;; turn right and go one-pace

to go-right  ;; turtle procedure
  rt 90
  one-pace
end 


; Copyright 1997 Uri Wilensky.
; See Info tab for full copyright and license.

There are 10 versions of this model.

Uploaded by	When	Description	Download
Uri Wilensky	over 11 years ago	Updated to NetLogo 5.0.4	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	about 12 years ago	Updated version tag	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	about 12 years ago	Updated to version from NetLogo 5.0.3 distribution	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	almost 13 years ago	Updated to NetLogo 5.0	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Updated from NetLogo 4.1	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Updated from NetLogo 4.1	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Updated from NetLogo 4.1	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Updated from NetLogo 4.1	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Model from NetLogo distribution	Download this version
Uri Wilensky	over 14 years ago	Random Walk Left Right	Download this version

Attached files

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Random Walk Left Right.png	preview	Preview for 'Random Walk Left Right'	over 11 years ago, by Uri Wilensky	Download

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