Abstract
The work reported here has been motivated by the need for a generic spatial model to overcome the limitations of Cellular Automata (CA) regarding the rigid square-cell structure and limited neighbourhood configurations. A novel approach for spatial modelling technique is developed: the “vector-agent” in which the individual entity is represented by their real geometric boundaries (which can change over time) beneath an agent modelling structure. We show in this paper how the theory behind CA and agents can be combined to produce a generic and dynamic agent based on the vector data structure. This new paradigm has extended capabilities over the Geographic Automata (Torrens and Benenson, 2005) in terms of CA disunity and the abstraction of non-fixed-objects. Through computer simulation, different techniques and algorithms have been derived achieving a high degree of representational realism for a variety of phenomena