Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 10: Social Systems, Opinion and Group Dynamics I

SOE 10.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 15:15–15:30, H 0110

Swarm model for the huddling behavior of Emperor penguins — •Richard Gerum, Claus Metzner, Daniel P. Zitterbart, and Ben Fabry — Biophysics Group, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany

To withstand the Antarctic cold on open land for more than two months, Emperor penguins are forming densely packed huddles with a hexagonal lattice structure. Video recordings have revealed striking dynamical reorganization processes within those huddles (PLoS One, 6:e20260, 2011), including wave-like patterns, global rotatory motions and abrupt transitions to a disordered state. Here we show that basic aspects of the huddling behavior can be reproduced with simple systems of interacting point particles. For a more realistic modeling, the individual animals are treated as self-driven, information processing agents with situation-dependent behavior, similar to simulations of collective swarm behavior in flocks and herds. We present a multi-agent simulation in which both the spontaneous huddle formation and the observed wave patterns emerge from simple rules that only encompass the interaction between directly neighboring individuals. Our model shows that a collective wave can be triggered by a forward step of any individual within the dense huddle. The group velocity of the resulting wave is dependent only on the reaction times and the step velocity of the animals. By including the mutual adaption of individual body orientations, we present first results on rotary and curved movement patterns.