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Abstract

In 1998 a consortium consisting of the Computing Laboratory, Silsoe Research Institute, and the Universities of Leeds and Bristol, successfully demonstrated a robotic device that was capable of herding live ducks, and thus demonstrated the efficacy of a mathematical model of flocking behaviour. In order to carry on with this work (in a way that avoids having to muck out real animals!) we are repeating the work but this time with robot ducks. Projects to help continue this work are available, and suggested topics include (but are not limited to): building better sensing or (radio) communication hardware for existing ducks; designing (and possibly testing) novel algorithms to look at cooperation between sheepdogs; using machine learning to allow the shepdogs to learn; and building better simulations of the robots.