title: Collective motion patterns of swarms with delay coupling: Theory and experiment.
abstract: The formation of coherent patterns in swarms of interacting self-propelled autonomous agents is a subject of great interest in a wide range of application areas, ranging from engineering and physics to biology. In this paper, we model and experimentally realize a mixed-reality large-scale swarm of delay-coupled agents. The coupling term is modeled as a delayed communication relay of position. Our analyses, assuming agents communicating over an Erdös-Renyi network, demonstrate the existence of stable coherent patterns that can be achieved only with delay coupling and that are robust to decreasing network connectivity and heterogeneity in agent dynamics. We also show how the bifurcation structure for emergence of different patterns changes with heterogeneity in agent acceleration capabilities and limited connectivity in the network as a function of coupling strength and delay. Our results are verified through simulation as well as preliminary experimental results of delay-induced pattern formation in a mixed-reality swarm.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Code 6792, Plasma Physics Division, Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Section, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Klementyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szwaykowska
authors.affiliation: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Code 6792, Plasma Physics Division, Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Section, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Ira B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mier-Y-Teran Romero
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
authors.forename: Christoffer R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Heckman
authors.affiliation: Drexel University, Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics Department, Scalable Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mox
authors.affiliation: Drexel University, Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics Department, Scalable Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: M Ani
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D012371:Robotics; D012399:Rotation