An equation of state for insect swarms

Abstract Collective behaviour in flocks, crowds, and swarms occurs throughout the biological world. Animal groups are generally assumed to be evolutionarily adapted to robustly achieve particular functions, so there is widespread interest in exploiting collective behaviour for bio-inspired engineeri...

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Autores principales: Michael Sinhuber, Kasper van der Vaart, Yenchia Feng, Andrew M. Reynolds, Nicholas T. Ouellette
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/5741a46845434d46a940cebdc2e54fec
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:5741a46845434d46a940cebdc2e54fec2021-12-02T14:26:48ZAn equation of state for insect swarms10.1038/s41598-021-83303-z2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/5741a46845434d46a940cebdc2e54fec2021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83303-zhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Collective behaviour in flocks, crowds, and swarms occurs throughout the biological world. Animal groups are generally assumed to be evolutionarily adapted to robustly achieve particular functions, so there is widespread interest in exploiting collective behaviour for bio-inspired engineering. However, this requires understanding the precise properties and function of groups, which remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate that collective groups can be described in a thermodynamic framework. We define an appropriate set of state variables and extract an equation of state for laboratory midge swarms. We then drive swarms through “thermodynamic” cycles via external stimuli, and show that our equation of state holds throughout. Our findings demonstrate a new way of precisely quantifying the nature of collective groups and provide a cornerstone for potential future engineering design.Michael SinhuberKasper van der VaartYenchia FengAndrew M. ReynoldsNicholas T. OuelletteNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Michael Sinhuber
Kasper van der Vaart
Yenchia Feng
Andrew M. Reynolds
Nicholas T. Ouellette
An equation of state for insect swarms
description Abstract Collective behaviour in flocks, crowds, and swarms occurs throughout the biological world. Animal groups are generally assumed to be evolutionarily adapted to robustly achieve particular functions, so there is widespread interest in exploiting collective behaviour for bio-inspired engineering. However, this requires understanding the precise properties and function of groups, which remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate that collective groups can be described in a thermodynamic framework. We define an appropriate set of state variables and extract an equation of state for laboratory midge swarms. We then drive swarms through “thermodynamic” cycles via external stimuli, and show that our equation of state holds throughout. Our findings demonstrate a new way of precisely quantifying the nature of collective groups and provide a cornerstone for potential future engineering design.
format article
author Michael Sinhuber
Kasper van der Vaart
Yenchia Feng
Andrew M. Reynolds
Nicholas T. Ouellette
author_facet Michael Sinhuber
Kasper van der Vaart
Yenchia Feng
Andrew M. Reynolds
Nicholas T. Ouellette
author_sort Michael Sinhuber
title An equation of state for insect swarms
title_short An equation of state for insect swarms
title_full An equation of state for insect swarms
title_fullStr An equation of state for insect swarms
title_full_unstemmed An equation of state for insect swarms
title_sort equation of state for insect swarms
publisher Nature Portfolio
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/5741a46845434d46a940cebdc2e54fec
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