Robot control of animal flocks

Abstract

The Robot Sheepdog Project has developed a mobile robot that gathers a flock of ducks and manoeuvres them safely to a specified goal position. This is the first example of a robot system that exploits and controls an animal's behaviour to achieve a useful task. A potential-field model of flocking behaviour was constructed and used to aid the design of two novel flock-control methods. These methods are described and evaluated in a series of simulated and real-world experiments.