53,908 research outputs found
Noise-induced breakdown of coherent collective motion in swarms
We consider swarms formed by populations of self-propelled particles with
attractive long-range interactions. These swarms represent multistable
dynamical systems and can be found either in coherent traveling states or in an
incoherent oscillatory state where translational motion of the entire swarm is
absent. Under increasing the noise intensity, the coherent traveling state of
the swarms is destroyed and an abrupt transition to the oscillatory state takes
place.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
Three-Dimensional Time-Resolved Trajectories from Laboratory Insect Swarms
Aggregations of animals display complex and dynamic behaviour, both at the individual level and on the level of the group as a whole. Often, this behaviour is collective, so that the group exhibits properties that are distinct from those of the individuals. In insect swarms, the motion of individuals is typically convoluted, and swarms display neither net polarization nor correlation. The swarms themselves, however, remain nearly stationary and maintain their cohesion even in noisy natural environments. This behaviour stands in contrast with other forms of collective animal behaviour, such as flocking, schooling, or herding, where the motion of individuals is more coordinated, and thus swarms provide a powerful way to study the underpinnings of collective behaviour as distinct from global order. Here, we provide a data set of three-dimensional, time-resolved trajectories, including positions, velocities, and accelerations, of individual insects in laboratory insect swarms. The data can be used to study the collective as a whole as well as the dynamics and behaviour of individuals within the swarm
Fly Swarms and Complexity
A system is considered complex if it is composed of individual parts that abide by their own set of rules while the system, as a whole, exhibits unexpected properties. The motivation for studying complexity spurs from the fact that it is a fundamental aspect of many systems, including forest fires, earthquakes, stock markets, fish schools, plant root growth, and fly swarms. We are particularly interested in fly swarms and the possible complex properties that the swarm exhibits, arising from the individual fly interactions.
Fly swarms are a relatively simple complex system, but such systems are still not fully understood. In this research, various computational models were developed to assist with the understanding of fly swarms. These models were primarily described by analyzing the average distance from the center of mass, average distance between flies, and the inertia ratios. The inertia ratios indicated asymmetric fly systems, suggesting some accuracy in such models as physical fly swarms exhibit asymmetry. A major goal of this research was to provide a mathematical definition for swarming. While an arbitrary definition was developed, future research is required to pinpoint a definite definition
Towards human control of robot swarms
In this paper we investigate principles of swarm control that enable a human operator to exert influence on and control large swarms of robots. We present two principles, coined selection and beacon control, that differ with respect to their temporal and spatial persistence. The former requires active selection of groups of robots while the latter exerts a passive influence on nearby robots. Both principles are implemented in a testbed in which operators exert influence on a robot swarm by switching between a set of behaviors ranging from trivial behaviors up to distributed autonomous algorithms. Performance is tested in a series of complex foraging tasks in environments with different obstacles ranging from open to cluttered and structured. The robotic swarm has only local communication and sensing capabilities with the number of robots ranging from 50 to 200. Experiments with human operators utilizing either selection or beacon control are compared with each other and to a simple autonomous swarm with regard to performance, adaptation to complex environments, and scalability to larger swarms. Our results show superior performance of autonomous swarms in open environments, of selection control in complex environments, and indicate a potential for scaling beacon control to larger swarms
A scanning drift tube apparatus for spatio-temporal mapping of electron swarms
A "scanning" drift tube apparatus, capable of mapping of the spatio-temporal
evolution of electron swarms, developing between two plane electrodes under the
effect of a homogeneous electric field, is presented. The electron swarms are
initiated by photoelectron pulses and the temporal distributions of the
electron flux are recorded while the electrode gap length (at a fixed electric
field strength) is varied. Operation of the system is tested and verified with
argon gas, the measured data are used for the evaluation of the electron bulk
drift velocity. The experimental results for the space-time maps of the
electron swarms - presented here for the first time - also allow clear
observation of deviations from hydrodynamic transport. The swarm maps are also
reproduced by particle simulations
Modeling Dynamic Swarms
This paper proposes the problem of modeling video sequences of dynamic swarms
(DS). We define DS as a large layout of stochastically repetitive spatial
configurations of dynamic objects (swarm elements) whose motions exhibit local
spatiotemporal interdependency and stationarity, i.e., the motions are similar
in any small spatiotemporal neighborhood. Examples of DS abound in nature,
e.g., herds of animals and flocks of birds. To capture the local spatiotemporal
properties of the DS, we present a probabilistic model that learns both the
spatial layout of swarm elements and their joint dynamics that are modeled as
linear transformations. To this end, a spatiotemporal neighborhood is
associated with each swarm element, in which local stationarity is enforced
both spatially and temporally. We assume that the prior on the swarm dynamics
is distributed according to an MRF in both space and time. Embedding this model
in a MAP framework, we iterate between learning the spatial layout of the swarm
and its dynamics. We learn the swarm transformations using ICM, which iterates
between estimating these transformations and updating their distribution in the
spatiotemporal neighborhoods. We demonstrate the validity of our method by
conducting experiments on real video sequences. Real sequences of birds, geese,
robot swarms, and pedestrians evaluate the applicability of our model to real
world data.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, conference paper, computer visio
A counter abstraction technique for the verification of robot swarms.
We study parameterised verification of robot swarms against temporal-epistemic specifications. We relax some of the significant restrictions assumed in the literature and present a counter abstraction approach that enable us to verify a potentially much smaller abstract model when checking a formula on a swarm of any size. We present an implementation and discuss experimental results obtained for the alpha algorithm for robot swarms
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