Very little is known about movement rules and decision-making of social predators which herd and manipulate prey groups [Baileys et al. 2013; King et al. 2018]. Recent innovations in technology have made it possible to study cooperatively hunting predators and their interactions with prey groups [King et al. 2018]. The main objectives of this project are (a) to study such interactions between predators and prey, (b) to identify rules used by predators to manipulate their prey in different ways and (c) to develop bio-inspired algorithms that can be tested in simulations and embodied on robotic platforms. It is envisaged that the simulations and collective robots allow a deeper understanding of the principles operating in biological systems and that the analytic system can contribute to the development of novel shepherding algorithms thus enhancing our understanding of collective intelligence.

(Photo by Kris Mikael Krister)