Universal Patterns of Collective Motion from Minimal Models of Flocking

This paper is concerned with the basic laws describing the essential aspects of collective motion being one of the most common and spectacular manifestation of coordinated actions. Our purpose is to discuss models that are both simple and realistic enough to reproduce the observations and are useful for developing concepts for a better understanding of the complexity of systems consisting of many organisms as well as such non-living objects as interacting robots. Understanding the interrelation of these systems has the potential of improving the interpretation of collective behavioral patterns in both living and non-living systems by learning about similar phenomena in the two domains of nature.