Self-organized flocking in mobile robots based on frontal interaction and leadership rules

Self-organized flocking in a robotic swarm has been investigated for approximately twenty years, and is exemplified by the Boid model. This paper proposes a behavioral model by which robots can be externally guided without consensus on their heading direction. Conventionally the heading direction is determined by alignment rules, but such rules are difficult to implement in real robots because of mechanical/electrical factors. To tackle this challenge, we implement two bio-inspired rules: (1) a frontal-sector interaction rule observed in surf scoters, and (2) a leader rule for passing directional information from the leader to its flockmates. The effectiveness of the proposed method is quantitated in simulations and physical experiments.