title: Route-dependent switch between hierarchical and egalitarian strategies in pigeon flocks.
abstract: The mechanisms that underlie fascinating inter-individual interactions among animal groups have attracted increasing attention from biologists, physicists, and system scientists. There are two well-known types of interaction patterns: hierarchical and egalitarian. In the former type, individuals follow their leaders, whereas they follow their neighbors in the latter. Using high-resolution spatiotemporal data derived from the free flights of a flock of pigeons, we show that pigeon flocks actually adopt a mode that switches between the two aforementioned strategies. To determine its flight direction, each pigeon tends to follow the average of its neighbors while moving along a smooth trajectory, whereas it switches to follow its leaders when sudden turns or zigzags occur. By contrast, when deciding how fast to fly, each pigeon synthesizes the average velocity of its neighbors. This switching mechanism is promising for possible industrial applications in multi-robot system coordination, unmanned vehicle formation control, and other areas.
authors: School of Automation, Key Laboratory of Image Processing and Intelligent Control, State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipments and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors: Hai-Tao
authors: HT
authors: Zhang
authors: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
authors: Zhiyong
authors: Z
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1A, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Tamás
authors: T
authors: Vicsek
authors: School of Automation, Key Laboratory of Image Processing and Intelligent Control, State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipments and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors: Guanjun
authors: G
authors: Feng
authors: School of Automation, Key Laboratory of Image Processing and Intelligent Control, State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipments and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors: Longsheng
authors: L
authors: Sun
authors: Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China.
authors: Riqi
authors: R
authors: Su
authors: Web Sciences Center, University of Electronics Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China.
authors: Tao
authors: T
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000819:Animal Communication; D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D010856:Columbidae / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal; D008954:Models, Biological