David Brogan
University of Virginia
Jessica K. Hodgins
Carnegie Mellon University
Autonomous Robots, 1997
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 neighbors and with obstacles. We would like to
reproduce this behavior for groups of simulated creatures traveling fast enough that dynamics plays a significant
role in determining their movement. In this paper, we describe an algorithm for controlling the movements of
creatures that travel as a group and evaluate the performance of the algorithmwith three simulated systems: legged
robots, humanlike 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 position within the group.
The simpler point-mass systems are included because they help us to understand the effects of the dynamics on the
performance of the algorithm.
Paper
|
|
|