All Behaviors

Exploration

Homing (see also Simulating Flocking Behaviors in Complex Environments)

At any given time there is one goal, and when all flock members reach it, a new goal is randomly generated; this process continues until eight goals have been generated and reached. The experiment involves 40 flock members, which are initially placed according to a Gaussian distribution around the center of the square environment.

Movie: 2D Homing (mpeg 10.5MB), 3D Homing (mpeg 1.5MB)

Basic Covering (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors and Roadmap-Based Group Behaviors)

In this experiment, we compare basic flocking behavior, roadmap-based behavior, and an ideal variant of the roadmap-based behavior which has dynamic knowledge of the undiscovered regions. In the movie, the flock starts at the center of the environment. As the members visit new regions, the covered areas are highlighted. When a roadmap based approach is used, more of the environment is covered as shown in the animations.

Movie: Covering1 (mpeg 10.9MB), Covering2 (mpeg 3.3MB), Covering3 (mpeg 3.3MB)

Scan Explore (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors)

The agents use the roadmap for finding paths to unexplored regions in the environment. The agents first generate points that are unobservable to the agent’s current location. Next the agents attempt to make scan points visible by moving toward unobserved locations. Communication can be employed to make the behavior more effective and improve coverage.

Movie: Scan Explore (mpeg 4.7MB),

Rendezvous Explore (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors)

This behavior is inherently group based. In groups, a goal location is generated. Paths are found through the environment using the roadmap. The agents adapt the roadmap so that paths extracted are biased to unexplored areas. This has the effect of having the agents taking separate paths to arrive at the goal location.

Movie: Rendezvous Explore in a Maze (mpeg 2.8MB), Rendezvous Explore in a Forest (mpeg 1.3MB)

Territorial Explore (see also Roadmap-Based Group Behaviors)

This behavior attempts to partition the environment into distinct regions. The agents then randomly explore their territory. The roadmap is utilized when partitioning the environment.

Movie: Territorial Explore (mpeg 2.4MB),

Patrolling Behaviors (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors)

Based off behavior seen in chimpanzees and wolves, the patrolling behavior attempts to periodically cover the area around the border of a territory. This allows the agents to effectively protect a territory. The roadmap is used to form the paths along the border.

Movie: Patrolling with 4 agents (mpeg 1.9MB), Patrolling with 20 agents (mpeg 3.5MB), Patrolling with 40 agents (mpeg 5.8MB)

Evasion

Hiding Behaviors (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors)

We have studied a number of different hiding techniques. In a basic hiding behavior an agent will stay at a hiding location until it is discovered. When discovered, the agent will then determine the next hiding location. More advanced versions of this behavior will select paths to the new hiding location based on how "hidden" the paths are considered. Agents can also maintain an idea of potentially dangerous zones where searching had been observed before.

Movie: Flee-and-Freeze (mpeg 1.5MB), Flee-and-Hide (mpeg 3.6MB),

Pursuing

Pursuing Behaviors (see also Naturally-Inspired Group Behaviors)

Pursuit behaviors are used to track and attempt to apprehend a target. These occur in nature when predators hunt their prey, such as lions, dogs, or dolphins. Their behaviors range from a basic chase to assuming formations and driving the prey towards the other hunters. Pursuit-Evasion games are also studied in robotics. We have studied a number of naturally inspired pursuit behaviors in conjunction with our searching behaviors.

Movie: Pursuit in a Maze (mpeg 3.0MB), Pursuit in a Forest (mpeg 1.8MB)

Others

Shepherding (see also Specialized Techniques for Shepherding Behaviors)

In this experiment, one set of agents(the shepherds), steers a herd of sheep. The sheep show basic flocking behavior (they tend to stay together) while trying to avoid the shepherd. We have studied advanced shepherding techniques for a single shepherd and multiple shepherds.

Movie: Shepherding (mpeg 10.8MB)

Narrow Passage


This experiment shows that flock's behavior depends on the surrounding environment. Different group formations may be used in relatively open areas than when passing through narrow regions.

A naive way to achieve narrow passage traversal by the flock is to use the homing behavior. One drawback of this approach is that flock members may bunch up and conflict with each other as they try to move through the passage. Using rule based roadmap, we first assemble the flock in front of the narrow passage, and then select the closest flock member to the entrance to the narrow passage as the leader. Then, the remaining flock members are arranged into a queue that follows the leader.

Movie: