20071010.	influence of the employed perception model on the flocking behaviour. [flocking-ap][fm-ap][fm-td][fm-lv][lf-ap][lf-td][lf-lv] Investigation of the influence of the perception model on the flocking behaviour. Three models are investigated. A limited perception volume, where birds perceive neighbours that are within a specified perception distance and field of view and their impact on drives is distance dependant (metric). Topological distance, where birds perceive information of a specified number of neighbours (7) and the influence on alignment drive is neighbour number dependant (topological); the influence on the separation and cohesion drives is still metric. The advanced perception volume is a combination of the two with a number of amendments that are still under development. The influence is investigated through two study cases, namely a head-on merge of two flocks and an initial perfect line flock formation. [flocking-ap] flocking behaviour with advanced perception (~15.2MB) [fm-ap] head-on merge advanced perception (~18.1MB) [fm-td] head-on merge topological distance (~18.1MB) [fm-lv] head-on merge limited perception volume (~17.9MB) [lf-ap] line flock advanced perception (~12.9MB) [lf-td] line flock topological distance (~10.4MB) [lf-lv] line flock limited perception volume (~8.50MB)
20070402.	fuzzy flocks in three dimensions. [syn] A simulation sequence from a set-up, where two animats are observed in a 3D environment. The animats are represented as triangles, with the apex indicating the flight direction. The green cylinder represents the roosting area. The light gray checkerboard represents a measurement aid (a tile is 5 body lengths in size). Only two drives are enabled, namely cohesion and separation. The bottom part displays the drives' fuzzy outputs (red for separation and green for cohesion); the left side displays the desired change in vertical and horizontal flight direction, whereas the right side the desired change in flight speed. It is interesting how even using only these two drives the two animats stabilise into a group where one leads and the other follows while performing circular loops. [syn] synflocks_v1.1.20070402 (~7.87MB)
20060406.	feeding field attaction. [syn] A simulation sequence from a set-up, where a group of 19 animats was observed for 5000 frames. The animats are represented as triangles, with the apex indicating the flight direction. The green circle represents the ground coverage area, the grey circle the extents of the feeding field, and the light grey circle the distance at which the feeding field becomes attractive. The animats' level of hunger is colour coded, where green represents a low level of hunger and red a high level of hunger. The light gray checkerboard represents a measurement aid (a tile is 5 body lengths in size). The title bar shows the current state of the simulation: simulation step, cumulative number of collisions (c), number of flocks (f), number of stragglers (s), proportion of leaderless flocks (plf), average flight speed (v) and average nearest neighbour distance (nnd). [syn] synflocks_v1.0.20060406 (~8.63MB)
20050708.	two flocks in a head-on merge. [syn] A simulation sequence from a set-up, where two flocks consisting of 19 animats were forced into a head-on merge and were observed in this process. The animats are represented as triangles, with the apex indicating the flight direction. Grey triangles are stragglers, blue triangles are flocking animats and dark blue triangles are flock leaders. Orange triangles depict colliding animats. The light gray checkerboard represents a measurement aid (a tile is 5 body lengths in size). The title bar shows the current state of the simulation: simulation step, cumulative number of collisions (c), number of flocks (f), number of stragglers (s), proportion of leaderless flocks (plf), average flight speed (v) and average nearest neighbour distance (nnd). [syn] synflocks_v1.0.20050708 (~6.63MB)
tech.	quicktime. [download] All media files were produced using the 3ivx MPEG-4 Filter suite and are playable by the Apple MPEG-4 Decoder built into and shipped with every copy of QuickTime 6. If you wish to use Windows Media Player install the 3ivx MPEG-4 Filter suite. 3ivx. [download] All media files were produced using the 3ivx MPEG-4 Filter suite and are playable by the Apple MPEG-4 Decoder built into and shipped with every copy of QuickTime 6. If you wish to use Windows Media Player install the 3ivx MPEG-4 Filter suite.