Posted Jan 31, 2008 at 02:19AM by Ryan A. Listed in: Animals and Wildlife Tags: Italy
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Science behind starling flock formation to be used in controlling robot swarms - Image 1 Science behind starling flock formation to be used in controlling robot swarms - Image 2 


Flocks of medium-sized birds known as starlings have kept scientists and biologists in awe for years now because of their graceful and precise aerial maneuvering. After years of study, the experts now believe that they have already discovered the birds' secret.

Being small by nature, starlings can't afford to stray from the flock lest they want to be eaten or captured by their natural enemies. Andrea Cavagna of Italy’s National Institute for the Physics of Matter had this to say:


We finally cracked the experimental problem, and we have now data on the individual 3D position of starlings within large flocks (around 3000 birds) in the field.


We are the first to have produced this kind of data, and we are now in the position to compare with existing models and theories. Our result show that one of the main assumptions of current models and theories is, in fact, quite wrong.


According to the team that tackled the problem, current models suggest that individual birds interact with every other bird in a given distance. However, their experiment has shown that each bird takes note of just seven other flock members regardless of distance.

"An interaction based upon the number of neighbors, rather than their distance, implies rather complex cognitive capabilities in birds,” further explained Irene Giardina, a fellow researcher, of the Center for Statistical Mechanics and Complexity in Rome.

More interestingly, the team added that this new knowledge will be used for further experiments to control a swarm of robots.


[Via Telegraph] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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