Carl-Oscar Erneholm

Simulation of the Flocking Behavior of Birds With the Boids algorithm

Abstract

Few things in nature is as impressive as how some animals seems to be able to organize themselves into larger groups so effortlessly. By learning more about this fascinating be- haviour we might be able to apply this knowledge to find new solutions to our own problems.

One of the first stepping stones to get to an under- standing of flocking behaviour is to be able to simulate it. The first flocking-behavior simulation was done on a com- puter by Craig Reynolds in 1986 he called his simulation program: "Boids". It's still to this day to most used model for simulating flocking behaviour.

This thesis attempts to compare two different defini- tions of the neighbourhood of the boids. The definition of the neighbourhood has great effect of how the boids act.