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Researchers Reference Flocking Birds to Improve Swarmbots
inghamb87 writes "Scientists have studied flocks of starlings and cracked the mystery behind the birds' ability to fly in large formations, and regroup quickly after attacks, without getting confused and ramming into each other. While the information is cool, some scientists seem to think that the best use of this knowledge is not to aid our appreciation of nature, but to make more effective robot swarms. We've talked about swarming robots many times before, but usually researchers look to insects for inspiration."
Craig Reynolds was doing this many years ago: http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/
I was intrigued about what the actual algorithm used by the starlings was, but the referenced article didn't elucidate. Eventually I found a link to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/29/scistarling129.xml hidden at the bottom - it has a little more detail. Enjoy!
Do as you would be done to.
Modelling bird swarming behaviour isn't new. ...getting it right is. If you rtfa, and Craig Reynolds work, you'd know that the boids simulation assumed that birds interacted with all nearest neighbours within a certain distance. The paper this article refers to proves by observing starling flocks that that isn't true - in fact the starlings interacted with the nearest 6 or 7 independent of the distance apart the birds were.