Public lecture examines how collective motion in nature inspires robotic design
Contacts:
Amanda Aranowski, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Amanda@ima.umn.edu, (612) 626-7881
Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, rzurn@umn.edu, (612) 626-7959
Preston Smith, University News Services, smith@umn.edu, (612) 625-0552
Lecture kicks off University of Minnesota Institute for Mathematics and its Applications lecture series
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/04/2011) – From bird flocks to fish schools, animals move together and respond to their environment in remarkable ways. Their natural collective motion patterns appear well choreographed and their collective survival strategies seem ingenious.
In the upcoming University of Minnesota public lecture entitled “Flocks and Fleets: Collective Motion in Nature and Robotics,” Princeton University Professor Naomi Ehrich Leonard will discuss how these animal group behaviors inspire design for groups of mobile, sensor-equipped robots at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Willey Hall, Room 175, 225 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis. The lecture is the first in a three-part series sponsored by the University’s Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) within the College of Science and Engineering.
The event is free and open to the public.
Leonard, a professor in Princeton’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, will show how mathematical modeling and analysis play a critical role in explaining the enabling mechanisms in animal groups and defining provable mechanisms for robotic groups. She will discuss connections among spatial pattern, information passing, and collective behavior in robot and animal networks. She will present applications of her study that include the design of an adaptive ocean observation system using a fleet of underwater robotic vehicles and an investigation of motion and decision-making in bird flocks and fish schools.
Currently, Leonard’s work focuses on the feedback and dynamics of collective behavior. Working with evolutionary biologists, she studies feedback mechanisms and dynamics in animal groups. Inspired by biology, she designs feedback mechanisms to enable teams of robots. In 2010, she began a collaboration with choreographer Susan Marshall, director of the Program in Dance in Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, which culminated in the “Flock Logic” project, which looked at the intersection between the art of dance and the science of flocking. Leonard also recently co-led the Adaptive (Ocean) Sampling and Prediction (ASAP) project, featuring a fleet of underwater robotic gliders equipped with sensors to measure ocean temperature and currents and controlled to move as a group in patterns that yield the richest data set.
For details about this and other IMA public lectures, visit http://www.ima.umn.edu/public- lecture.
About the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications
Founded in 1982, the University of Minnesota Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) promotes vigorous collaboration among mathematicians, engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, and other applied scientists, attracting more than 1,200 visiting scholars per year. Since its establishment, the IMA has grown to become among the most influential math institutes in the world. Its mission is to engage mathematicians and other scientists from around the globe in programs and activities that advance the nation’s science and technology agendas.