Fascinating complexity

Here we go, another little step towards Master Degree! "Complex systems" is achieved and with full score, thanks to a crowd simulation based on Craig Reynolds' BOIDS and rendered by my own 3D engine "PLT".

I love emerging models - as one can easily foresee by reading the name of this blog - and BOIDS is no exception. A few rules and parameters, two constraints and a bit of randomness and we have a hell of algorithm, almost chaotic and showing a lot of unexpected and non-designed behaviours: formation of queues, spontaneous groups, and so on. Michele and I did a validation study, basing on the previous works of Crystals' Project, a joint effort in crowds simulation. Our model worked well, mathing the expected timings and behaviours, at least with reasonable agents' density; being BOIDS a simple reactive multi-agent system, our pedestrian do not embedded sufficient "intelligence" and can easily fall in many subtle cul-de-sac. It's a good result, anyway, and leaves a lot of space for further investigation.