Communication amongst multi-agents in a system gives rise to complex emergent phenomena that remain poorly understood in terms of the underpinning mechanism. We explore communications mechanisms between multi-agents in a many-agent spatial predator prey model. We focus on solider-worker scenarios in a swarm-like model where swarm collectives compete for resources and can gain an advantage by trading off numbers of unproductive soldiers against numbers of defenseless but productive workers. We show how even relatively simple cross-caste communications allows a particular collective to maintain a smaller and therefore less expensive army by making it more mobile and responsive to enemy incursions. We discuss possible communications mechanisms and issues for real collective communities such as termites or bacterial colonies where workers might summon soldiers to where the battlefronts form.
Keywords: multi-agent systems; animat agents; communicating agents; caste divisions.
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