Wednesday, January 30, 2008

How birds swarm

The article is called "Study of starling formations points way for swarming robots" and even mentions robots in the first sentence, but the article really has nothing to do with robots...

Scientists have uncovered a simple rule that explains how thousands of starlings flock in formation and hope to use the discovery in the future to coordinate swarms of robots.

The reasons why the starlings are able to fly with Red Arrow precision in vast numbers, tumbling and banking in nervous unison and without colliding, has tantalised scientists.

Now it turns out that the secret is for each bird to track seven others, says the first detailed direct observations to have been reported by STARFLAG - Starlings in Flight - a European project involving biologists, physicists, and economists.


Read more here.

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