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Published August 2018 | Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

Robotic Herding of a Flock of Birds Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

In this paper, we derive an algorithm for enabling a single robotic unmanned aerial vehicle to herd a flock of birds away from a designated volume of space, such as the air space around an airport. The herding algorithm, referred to as the m-waypoint algorithm, is designed using a dynamic model of bird flocking based on Reynolds' rules. We derive bounds on its performance using a combination of reduced-order modeling of the flock's motion, heuristics, and rigorous analysis. A unique contribution of the paper is the experimental demonstration of several facets of the herding algorithm on flocks of live birds reacting to a robotic pursuer. The experiments allow us to estimate several parameters of the flocking model, and especially the interaction between the pursuer and the flock. The herding algorithm is also demonstrated using numerical simulations.

Additional Information

© 2018 IEEE. Manuscript received October 12, 2017; revised April 4, 2018; accepted April 7, 2018. Date of publication August 2, 2018; date of current version August 15, 2018. This paper was recommended for publication by Guest Editor P. Dames and Editor F. Park upon evaluation of the reviewers' comments. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award NSF IIS 1253758 & 1664186 and in part by the California Institute of Technology. The authors would like to thank Shripad Gade for his contributions to the initial phase of this project, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

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Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023