Bayesian optimization of distributed neurodynamical controller models for spatial navigation.

Dynamical systems models for controlling multi-agent swarms have demonstrated advances toward resilient, decentralized navigation algorithms. We previously introduced the NeuroSwarms controller, in which agent-based interactions were modeled by analogy to neuronal network interactions, including attractor dynamics and phase synchrony, that have been theorized to operate within hippocampal place-cell circuits in navigating rodents. This complexity precludes linear analyses of stability, controllability, and performance typically used to study conventional swarm models.

Cognitive swarming in complex environments with attractor dynamics and oscillatory computing.

Neurobiological theories of spatial cognition developed with respect to recording data from relatively small and/or simplistic environments compared to animals' natural habitats. It has been unclear how to extend theoretical models to large or complex spaces. Complementarily, in autonomous systems technology, applications have been growing for distributed control methods that scale to large numbers of low-footprint mobile platforms.

The mechanism of flight guidance in honeybee swarms: subtle guides or streaker bees?

When a honeybee swarm takes off to fly to its new home site, less than 5% of the bees in the swarm have visited the site and thereby know in what direction the swarm must fly. How does the small minority of informed bees indicate the swarm's flight direction to the large majority of uninformed bees? Previous simulation studies have suggested two possible mechanisms of visual flight guidance: the informed bees guide by flying in the preferred direction but without an elevated speed (subtle guide hypothesis) or they guide by flying in the preferred direction and with an elevated speed (streaker bee hypothesis). We tested these hypotheses by performing a video analysis that enabled us to measure the flight directions and flight speeds of individual bees in a flying swarm.