ECOTWIN

WHAT IS ECOTWIN?

Ecotwin is an open-source agent-based ecosystem simulator that runs on the game engine Unity. It includes models of inanimate objects like mountains and lakes, and living objects like animals and plants.

• Three-dimensional terrain models

• Terrestrial and marine ecosystems

• Generic models of animals and plants

• Genotypes and phenotypes

• Sexual and asexual reproduction

• Nervous systems modeled by deep reinforcement learning

• Individual and lifelong learning

• Reward signal based on homeostasis

Publications:

AI Tool for Exploring How Economic Activities Impact Local Ecosystems (IntelliSys-23)

Ecosystem Models Based on Artificial Intelligence (SAIS-22)

Source code

applications

Biology only offers partial insights into the mechanisms that govern ecosystem development. Thus, the ecosystem models that we have today are necessarily far from perfect. Nevertheless, relatively realistic ecosystem models might contribute substantially to sustainable decision-making. Potential uses of such ecosystem models include:

• Consequence analysis of human interventions in real ecosystems via fishing, forestry, agriculture, and urbanization

• Theoretical biology, including evolution and ethology

• Game theory and behavioral economics

• Video games

• Robotics

The goal of the Ecotwin project is to build a relatively realistic ecosystem simulator by including several features of ecosystem development that are sometimes omitted in other ecosystem simulators. In particular Ecotwin includes terrain models, genetic models, and behavioral models.