Determining interaction rules in animal swarms
Journal article, 2010
In this paper, we introduce a method for determining local interaction rules in animal swarms. The method is based on the assumption that the behavior of individuals in a swarm can be treated as a set of mechanistic rules. The principal idea behind the technique is to vary parameters that define a set of hypothetical interactions, as for example, a rule for aligning with neighbors. The parameter values are optimized so that the deviation between the observed movements in an animal swarm and the movements predicted by the assumed rule set is minimal. We demonstrate the method by reconstructing the interaction rules from the trajectories produced by a computer simulation.
behavioral rules
movement
tools
force matching
reverse engineering
fish
selfish herd
memory
flocks
collective behavior
model
swarming
Author
A. Eriksson
University of Cambridge
Martin Nilsson Jacobi
Princeton University
J. Nystrom
Princeton University
Kolbjörn Tunström
Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
Behavioral Ecology
1045-2249 (ISSN) 1465-7279 (eISSN)
Vol. 21 5 1106-1111Subject Categories
Biological Sciences
DOI
10.1093/beheco/arq118