Flocking and swarming in a multi-agent dynamical system

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the research community has been interested in the study of multi-agent systems and their emerging collective dynamics. These systems are all around us in nature, like bacterial colonies, fish schools, bird flocks, as well as in technology, such as microswimmers and robotics, to name a few. Flocking and swarming are two key components of the collective behaviours of multi-agent systems. In flocking, the agents coordinate their direction of motion, but in swarming, they congregate in space to organise their spatial position. We investigate a minimal mathematical model of locally interacting multi-agent system where the agents simultaneously swarm in space and exhibit flocking behaviour. Various cluster structures are found, depending on the interaction range. When the coupling strength value exceeds a crucial threshold, flocking behaviour is observed. We do in-depth simulations and report the findings by changing the other parameters and with the incorporation of noise.