Clustering in multi-agent swarms via medium-range interaction

¹ State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, College of Engineering, Peking University Beijing 100871, PRC
² School of Physics, Peking University - Beijing 100871, PRC

^a chutg@pku.edu.cn

Received: 25 June 2011
Accepted: 4 October 2011

Abstract

We investigate clustering behavior in mutually interacting agent swarms. Our model consists of identical active particles governed by pairwise attractive and repulsive interactions with different effective ranges. Specifically, in addition to the usual long-range attraction and short-range repulsion, we introduce a medium-range repulsive interaction between particles to break the particle group into clusters. We analyze the effect of the competing interactions on particle radial distribution in space and present both numerical simulations and analytical estimates of the average cluster size, the average nearest-neighboring cluster distance, and the average nearest-neighboring particle distance in the same cluster, in terms of the strength and the extent of the medium-range repulsion. The results are relevant to issues concerning cluster pattern formation control of dynamic multi-agent systems.