Emergent grouping behaviors and their intercations with obstacles

Background/Question/Methods

Flocking is a grouping behavior attributed to animals when they move in cohesion. Flocking is characterized by a group composed of self-determining individuals without explicit leadership or guidance, exhibiting what appears to be a directed and controlled collective motion. When flocks are simulated by a program, simple rules like collision avoidance, alignment, and cohesion can create realistic models of grouping behavior. We are investigating the effect obstacles have on emergent grouping behavior as simulated through an agent based model developed specifically for this investigation. The program simulates grouping using agents that have various levels of adherence to rules that the entire flock follows. The obstacles are also simulated and represent environmental features along with entities formed by humans.

Results/Conclusions

We found that agents with low adherence to flocking rules create a more diffuse pattern. Obstacles are implemented into the program in order to test their effect on flocking behavior. Agents with high affinities to each other create tight group formations which freely cross obstacles while low affinities result in the agents dispersing and causing difficulty in obstacle traversal. These results suggest that closely scattered obstacles would most affect species that have dispersed groupings, while species with tight groupings may be least affected in traversing obstacles. The results aid in deciding the placement of human made obstacles to lessen the burden of traversing the landscape.