English

An all-leader agent-based model for turning and flocking birds

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems 2021-10-08 v2 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

Starting from recent experimental observations of starlings and jackdaws, we propose a minimal agent-based mathematical model for bird flocks based on a system of second-order delayed stochastic differential equations with discontinuous (both in space and time) right-hand side. The model is specifically designed to reproduce self-organized spontaneous sudden changes of direction, not caused by external stimuli like predator's attacks. The main novelty of the model is that every bird is a potential turn initiator, thus leadership is formed in a group of indistinguishable agents. We investigate some theoretical properties of the model and we show the numerical results. Biological insights are also discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.01990,
  title  = {An all-leader agent-based model for turning and flocking birds},
  author = {Emiliano Cristiani and Marta Menci and Marco Papi and Léonard Brafman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.01990},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:02:37.966Z