In my model, I have some agents;
"Demand" agent,
"EnergyProducer1" agent
"EnergyProducer2" agent.
When my hourly energy demands are created in the Main agent with a function, the priority for satisfying this demand is belongs to "EnergyProducer1" agent. In this agent, I have a function that calculate energy production based on some situtations. The some part of the inside of this function is following;
**" if (statechartA.isStateActive(Operating.busy)) && ( main.heatLoadDemandPerHour >= heatPowerNominal) { producedHeatPower = heatPowerNominal;
naturalGasConsumptionA = naturalGasConsumptionNominal;
send("boilerWorking",boiler);
} else ..... "**
Here my question is related to 4th line of the code. If my agent1 fails to satisfy the hourly demand, I have to say agent2 that " to satisfy rest of demand". If I send this message to agent2, its statechart will be active and the function of agent2 will be working. My question is that this all situations will be realized at the same hour ??? İf it is not, is accessing variables and parameters of other agent2 more appropiaote way???
I hope I could explain my problem. thanks for your help in advance...
**Edited question...
As a general comment on your question, within AnyLogic environment sending messages is alway preferable to directly accessing variable and parameters of another agent.
Specifically in the example presented the send() function will schedule message delivery the next instance after the completion of the current function.
Update: A message in AnyLogic can be any Java class. Sending strings such as "boilerWorking" used in the example is good for general control, however if more information needs to be shared (such as a double value) then it is good practice to create a new Java class (let's call is ModelMessage and follow these instructions) with at least two properties msgStr and msgVal. With this new class sending a message changes from this:
...
send("boilerWorking", boiler);
...
to this:
...
send(new ModelMessage("boilerWorking",42.0), boiler);
...
and firing transitions in the statechart has to be changed to use if expression is true with expression being msg.msgString == "boilerWorking".
More information about Agent communication is available here.