Attractors inside a node

An Attractor allows you to control the position of an agent location inside a rectangular or a polygonal node.

• If the node defines the destination of the agent’s movement (for example, is referenced by MoveTo), attractors define exact positions inside the node.
• You can set a specific attractor as the destination. The following blocks allow you to define a destination or location with an attractor:
  • Source, Split, Assembler, Batch, Enter — location of the agent.
  • MoveTo, ResourceSendTo, Seize, Service — destination for agents or moving resources.
• If the node defines the waiting location (is referenced by Delay or Queue), attractors define exact points where agents will wait within the node. Agents will go to the attractor location to wait.
• You can send agents to the attractor by calling one of the moveTo() agent movement functions.

In pedestrian simulation, Attractor allow you to control the location of pedestrians within a node.

• If the node defines the destination of the pedestrian movement (is referenced by PedGoTo), attractors define the exact destination points inside the node.
• If the node defines the pedestrians waiting location (is referenced by PedWait), attractors define the exact points where pedestrians will wait inside the node. Pedestrians will go to the attractor location to wait. This option may be used to simulate information boards, display shelves in stores, and so on.

Demo model: Pedestrian Attractors Open the model page in AnyLogic Cloud. There you can run the model or download it (by clicking Model source files). Demo model: Pedestrian AttractorsOpen the model in your AnyLogic desktop installation.

Waiting positions (seats) defined with attractors

To draw an attractor inside the node

1. Drag the  Attractor element from the  Space Markup palette into the node.

   

The arrow of the attractor defines the orientation for agents inside an attractor. This is generally important if you have 2D or 3D animation and want the agent animation shapes to face the exact direction (for example, you may want the customer to face the ATM).

See the use of attractor’s orientation in the process-oriented tutorial:

Tutorials > Bank Office > Phase 3. Adding tellers > Set up space markup for the tellers > Step 5. We will use attractors to define the tellers.

You can change the Orientation in the properties of the attractor, or visually define the angle by dragging the arrow’s endpoint in the graphical editor:

You can add attractors one by one; however, if the attractors form a regular structure, it makes sense to add several attractors at once using the special command in the properties of the Rectangular and Polygonal nodes.

General

Name — The name of the attractor. The name is used to identify and access the attractor from code.

Ignore — If selected, the attractor is excluded from the model.

Position and size

X — the absolute X-coordinate of the attractor.

Y — the absolute Y-coordinate of the attractor.

Orientation — Defines where agents should be oriented when they reach the attractor and wait there (measured clockwise, in degrees).

Visibility and presentation

Agent presentation — If selected, the node is also visible on the upper-level agent that hosts the agent containing this node.

You can dynamically modify shape properties at model runtime using the API.

Position

Function	Description
double getX() double getY() double getZ()	Returns the X (Y, Z) absolute coordinate of the attractor. The Z coordinate is defined by the corresponding coordinate of the node.

Orientation

Function	Description
double getOrientation()	Returns the attractor’s orientation in radians (in the clockwise direction).

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