Redirecting counter-moving swarms through collision

2026/03/12 by Jason Hindes, Chinthan B. Prasad, Loy McGuire +1 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #nlin.AO #physics.soc-ph

paper · pdf

Abstract

Multi-swarm systems, where two or more swarms of mobile agents occupy the same region of space with different parameters and goals, occur in a variety of biological, engineering, and defense applications. Composites of multiple swarms can produce hybrid spatiotemporal patterns, which compared to single swarming systems, are relatively unexplored. In this work, we develop a framework for studying the collision of counter-moving swarms, each with its own preferred, stable velocity before collision. We show that redirection of such swarms after collision occurs when a stable velocity synchronized state of the multi-swarm composite exists. Using a rigid-body approximation, we are able to extract how scatter-redirection transitions scale with swarm parameters in a variety of scenarios from reciprocal and non-reciprocal systems to symmetric and antagonistic parameter values. Our results compare well to simulations of both particle modeled agents and wheeled robots.

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Discussions

• Jason Hindes, Chinthan B. Prasad, Loy McGuire, Ira B. Schwartz: Redirecting counter-moving swarms through collision https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12002 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.12002 https://arxiv.org/ [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

Related

• The Dynamics of Interacting Swarms
• A Minimal Model for Emergent Collective Behaviors in Autonomous Robotic Multi-Agent Systems
• The chaotic milling behaviors of interacting swarms after collision
• Interplay of sync and swarm: Theory and application of swarmalators
• A Mechanical Route for Cooperative Transport in Autonomous Robotic Swarms