The cohesive movement of a biological population is
a commonly observed natural phenomenon.
With the advent of platforms of unmanned vehicles, this occurrence
is attracting renewed interest from the engineering community.
This talk will review recent research results
on both modeling and analysis of biological swarms and
also design ideas for efficient algorithms to control groups of
autonomous agents.
For biological models we consider two kinds of systems:
driven particle systems based on force laws
and continuum models based on kinematic rules.
Both models involve long-rage social attaction and short range dispersal
and yield patterns involving clumping, mill vortices,
and surface-tension-like effects.
For artificial platforms we consider the problem of boundary tracking
of an environmental material and consider both computer models
and demonstrations on real platforms of robotic vehicles.
We also consider the motion of vehicles using artificial potentials.