Modelling the swarm: Analysing biological and engineered swarm systems

Heiko Hamann and Thomas Schmickl

Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, 2011, vol. 18, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: In this article, we discuss the current research efforts on swarm systems and on the motivation of mathematical modelling of such distributed and self-organizing systems. Obviously, a special emphasis is given to those articles which were carefully selected for the special issue at hand. These articles demonstrate how mathematical models of different kinds -- bottom-up agent models and top-down model approaches -- increase the understanding of natural swarm systems, for example, by investigating the efficiency in the self-regulation of social insect colonies. A second group of articles illustrates how mathematical models are used to generate and optimize artificial swarm systems as engineered in the field of swarm robotics. We discuss the common problems of such modelling efforts and highlight the importance of models as generators of hypotheses that suggest novel empiric experiments as well as the importance of empiric experimentation that results in meaningful model parameterizations. In summary, the special issue at hand, which is introduced by this article, gives a significant overview about the lines of research that are followed in the research of swarm systems today.

Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13873954.2011.601426 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:nmcmxx:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:1-12

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/NMCM20

DOI: 10.1080/13873954.2011.601426

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems is currently edited by I. Troch

More articles in Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().