Shepherding Behaviors with a Single Shepherd | Algorithms & Applications Group

Algorithms & Applications Group
Shepherding Behaviors with a Single Shepherd

Shepherding Behaviors with a Single Shepherd
supported by NSF, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Jyh-Ming Lien, Samuel Rodriguez, Nancy M. Amato
Project Alumni: O. Burchan Bayazit, Ross T. Sowell

Shepherding Behaviors
Shepherding behaviors are one class of flocking behaviors in which one or more external agents (called shepherds) attempt to control the motion of another group of agents (called flock) by exerting repulsive forces from shepherds to the flock.

Shepherding Herding.
Shepherds steer a flock from a start region to a goal region. Study of the herding behavior is used to construct robots as a cheaper alternative to sheep dogs and may be used to study neuron migration process in which a repulsive molecule pushes young cells to their permanent position in a brain.
Herding Movies.

Shepherding Covering.
Shepherds guide a flock to visit the entire environment. Study of the covering behavior provides a new paradigm to accomplish tasks like mine sweeping and surveillance.
Covering Movies.

Shepherding Patrolling.
shepherds protect a designated region from the flock entering it. Study of the patrolling behavior may be used to build robots to prevent wild birds from being sucked into airplane engine in airports and to keep swimmers or children away from dangerous zones on a beach or in a school.
Patrolling Movies.

Shepherding Collecting.
shepherds gather scattered flock members into a designated region Study of the collecting behavior may be used to construct robots that gather and skim off spilt oil from oil tankers on the sea to avoid further damage to our ecosystem (in this case, skimmers are shepherds and floating oil will be the flock) and may be used to study how predators hunt.
Collecting Movies.

Shepherd's Locomotion
We define a shepherd's locomotion as the manner in which the shepherd will move in order to control the movement of a flock. The shepherds locomotion remains invariant in different shepherding behaviors and dramatically affects the quality of simulation. We divide the shepherd's locomotion into two sub-problems: approaching and steering.

Approaching
In the approaching problem, we study how the shepherd goes to the steering point near the flock from its current position.


Approaching the flock	using a straight line	using a circular safe zone	using a dynamic roadmap

Steering
In the steering problem, we study how the shepherd steers the flock toward the milestone.


steering the flock	straight behind	side-to-side behind	no turn steering	stop-turn steering	pre-turn steering

A border collie walk side to side behind the flock in order to steer the flock.

Movies

	Herding 1 Straight-line approaching and steering. (divx 3.7 MB, mpeg 5.1 MB) Safe-zone approaching and side-to-side and turn steering. (divx 1.7 MB, mpeg 3.2 MB) Dynamic-roadmap approaching and side-to-side and turn steering. (divx 1 MB, mpeg 1.8 MB)
	Herding 2 Straight-line approaching and steering. (divx 4 MB, mpeg 5.7 MB) Safe-zone approaching and side-to-side and turn steering. (divx 5.3 MB, mpeg 8 MB) Dynamic-roadmap approaching and side-to-side and turn steering. (divx 4.7 MB, mpeg 7.2 MB)
	Covering Dynamic-roadmap approaching and side-to-side and turn steering. (mpeg 56 MB)
	Patrolling 5 flock members (using straight-line approaching and steering). (divx 10.5 MB, mpeg 15.4 MB) 10 flock members (using straight-line approaching and steering). (divx 10.5 MB, mpeg 15.4 MB) 20 flock members (using dynamic-roadmap and side-to-side and turn locomotion). (divx 10.5 MB, mpeg 15.4 MB) 40 flock members (using dynamic-roadmap and side-to-side and turn locomotion). (divx 10.5 MB, mpeg 15.4 MB)
	Collecting Sheep Flock (using dynamic-roadmap and side-to-side and turn locomotion). (divx 10 MB, mpeg 15 MB) Duck Flock (using dynamic-roadmap and side-to-side and turn locomotion). (divx 8.2 MB, mpeg 12 MB)

Papers

Related Projects

Shepherding Behaviors with Multiple Shepherds
Group Behaviors using Rule-Based Roadmaps
Planning Motion Among Moving Obstacles
Composable Group Behaviors

Papers

Shepherding Behaviors with Multiple Shepherds, Jyh-Ming Lien, Samuel Rodriguez, Jean-Philippe Malric, Nancy M. Amato, In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Autom. (ICRA), Apr 2005. Also, Technical Report, TR04-003, Parasol Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University, Sep 2004.
Proceedings(ps, pdf, abstract) Technical Report(ps, pdf)

Shepherding Behaviors, Jyh-Ming Lien, O. Burchan Bayazit, Ross T. Sowell, Samuel Rodriguez, Nancy M. Amato, In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Autom. (ICRA), pp. 4159-4164, New Orleans, Apr 2004. Also, Technical Report, TR03-006, Parasol Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University, Nov 2003.
Proceedings(ps, pdf, abstract) Technical Report(ps, pdf)

Better Shepherding Behaviors Using Improved Shepherd Locomotion, Ross T. Sowell, O. Burchan Bayazit, Jyh-Ming Lien, Nancy M. Amato, Technical Report, TR03-009, Parasol Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University, Aug 2003.
Technical Report(ps, pdf, abstract)

Department of Computer Science | Dwight Look College of Engineering | Texas A&M University
Privacy statement: Computer Science Engineering TAMU