Analysis of bird formations

Author

Seiler, Pete ; Pant, Aniruddha ; Hedrick, Karl

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2002

fDate

10-13 Dec. 2002

Firstpage

118

Abstract

Birds in V formations are frequently observed and two main hypotheses have emerged in the biology/ornithology literature to explain this particular geometry: (i) it offers aerodynamic advantages and (ii) it is used to improve visual communication. Both explanations require a bird to track its predecessor. Observations of flocks suggest that this task is difficult for birds in large formations. We explain this phenomenon using a simple bird model and systems theory. This result has implications for the coordinated control of unmanned aerial vehicles. In particular, predecessor-following is an inherently poor strategy for formation flight.

Keywords

aerospace robotics; biocontrol; mobile robots; multi-robot systems; position control; remotely operated vehicles; V formations; aerodynamic advantages; bird formations; coordinated control; formation flight; predecessor-following; systems theory; unmanned aerial vehicles; visual communication; Aerodynamics; Birds; Communication system control; Frequency; Geometry; Leg; Mechanical engineering; Navigation; Terminology; Visual communication;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Decision and Control, 2002, Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on

ISSN

0191-2216

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7516-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CDC.2002.1184478

Filename

1184478