Swarm Intelligence

swarms described later in the book seem to share this attribute with

flocks.)

In flocking simulations the important thing to simulate is coordi-

nated movement of the organisms, whether flocks, herds, or schools.

Some motives for studying such a topic include the desire to understand

biological aspects of social behavior and the wish to create interesting

and lucrative graphical effects. There is another, more pragmatic, reason

to learn about coordinating movements with simple decentralized rules,

and that is to design and develop robot societies.

Robot Societies

The stereotypical movie robot is an android with a voice-recognition in-

terface and a sardonic ...