Group Behaviors for Systems with Significant Dynamics

David Brogan
University of Virginia

Jessica K. Hodgins
Carnegie Mellon University

Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robobts and Systems

Abstract

Birds, fish, and many other animals travel as a flock, school, or herd. Animals in these groups must remain in close proximity while avoiding collisions with neigh- bors and with obstacles. We would like to reproduce this behavior for groups of artificial creatures with sig- nificant dynamics. In this paper we describe an algo- rithm for creatures that move as a group and evaluate the performance of the algorithm with three simulated systems: legged robots, human-like bicycle riders, and point-mass systems. Both the legged robots and the bicyclists are dynamic simulations that must control balance, facing direction, and forward speed as well as movement with the group. The point-mass systems have minimal dynamics and are included to facilitate our understanding of the effects of the dynamics on the performance of the algorithms.

Paper

 

David Brogan