Fast Synthetic Scene Generation for Directed Energy Applications

Large populations of interacting agents or swarms, are common throughout nature and society and, increasingly, in mechanical and electronic domains. Although the individual agents in such systems are governed by local rules, their collective behavior is often well-orchestrated to solve complex tasks, whether fighting disease, navigating through space to find resources, or to manage social interactions. In biology, famous examples of such swarm intelligence include flocks of birds, herds of elk, and the social insects. Less obvious is the swarm behavior of immune cells navigating through a body to find and eliminate pathogens. We will research methods for adapting bio-inspired swarm behaviors to other contexts.