What is it?

The RNetLogo package delivers an interface to use and access NetLogo from GNU R using either headless (no Graphical User Interface) or interactive GUI mode. It provides functions to load models, execute commands, push values and to get values from NetLogo reporters. The interface is mostly equivalent to NetLogo's Mathematica Link.

How to get it?

The easiest way is to type install.packages("RNetLogo") in your R shell - or for Windows users with the RGui to click on Packages -> Install package(s)... and select RNetLogo. This will install the version hosted on CRAN. The latest package version will be available here on R-Forge (can be broken during development of new releases). If you don't want to download it manually you can type install.packages("RNetLogo", repos="http://R-Forge.R-project.org") in your R shell.

Where to find more information?

The first choice should always be the manual. All functions of the RNetLogo package come with a manual page. The complete manual as pdf is available on CRAN. Furthermore, a 30 pages tutorial has been accepted for publication by Journal of Statistical Software. Moreover, there are code samples to all functions which can be found in the folder examples/code_samples in the installation path. A manuscript of a short overview article was accepted by Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

What else?

If you are looking for the other way around, i.e. embed R into NetLogo models, don't hestitate to try the R-Extension for NetLogo and/or the RServe-Extension. The latter is designed to work if you're using RNetLogo. The first one won't work in conjunction with RNetLogo.
See also our simulation software tools overview webpage at http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/315075.html.

Contact

The person behind the scene is Jan C. Thiele, member of the Department of Ecoinformatics, Biometrics and Forest Growth at the University of Goettingen, Germany. He works in close cooperation with Volker Grimm from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Ecological Modelling, Leipzig, Germany.