Evolution of cooperation in the snowdrift game among mobile players with random-pairing and reinforcement learning

•Cooperation is researched in the evolutionary PDG among mobile players.•A player interacts only with the nearest neighbor each turn.•Players make decision based on expected utility.•Cooperation is promoted in a large parameter range.•Moving ability has five types of influences on cooperation level.

The evolutionary spatial game in a mobile population has attracted many researchers of biological, social and economic sciences. Considering some facts observed in the real world, this paper proposes a novel spatial evolutionary snowdrift game model with movable players. In this model, one player interacts only with the nearest neighbor in each turn, and makes decision in a reinforcement learning way. In a very large range of the parameters moving ability enhances cooperation, but under some special condition, velocity heavily depresses cooperation. Some explanations have also been given out by investigating the strategy-change behavior of players. The findings may be helpful in understanding cooperative behavior in natural and social systems consisting of mobile agents.