title: Solving the shepherding problem: heuristics for herding autonomous, interacting agents.
abstract: Herding of sheep by dogs is a powerful example of one individual causing many unwilling individuals to move in the same direction. Similar phenomena are central to crowd control, cleaning the environment and other engineering problems. Despite single dogs solving this 'shepherding problem' every day, it remains unknown which algorithm they employ or whether a general algorithm exists for shepherding. Here, we demonstrate such an algorithm, based on adaptive switching between collecting the agents when they are too dispersed and driving them once they are aggregated. Our algorithm reproduces key features of empirical data collected from sheep-dog interactions and suggests new ways in which robots can be designed to influence movements of living and artificial agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75106, Sweden strombom@math.uu.se.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strömbom
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75106, Sweden.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.affiliation: Structure and Motion Laboratory, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL9 7TA, UK.
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University College of London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hailes
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK.
authors.forename: A Jennifer
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Morton
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75106, Sweden.
authors.forename: David J T
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Sumpter
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004285:Dogs; D008954:Models, Biological; D012756:Sheep
keywords: agent-based model; collective motion; sheep; sheepdog