An improved swarm model with informed agents to prevent swarm-splitting

The spatial aggregation of a large number of individuals and the coordination of individual behavior within the group are the two core characteristics of swarm behavior. Swarm-splitting blocks the information interaction between individuals, making it difficult for a swarm to stay together and achieve cooperation. In this respect, an improved distributed swarm model with a dual-adaptive feedback mechanism to prevent swarm-splitting and to improve the probability of reaching the target area is proposed. The first feedback mechanism is for informed agents to balance goal-oriented and social-oriented behavior, which helps informed agents maintain navigation accuracy while staying close to their neighbors. The second feedback mechanism is for followers to adjust their perception range adaptively, which helps the followers select appropriate neighbors based on the state of the nearby agents. Four metrics are provided to evaluate the swarm's performance, namely swarm connectivity, the average degree of temporal dependence, the average degree of temporal dependence, and the arrival rate. Simulation results show that the proposed swarm model outperforms the existing swarm models under the four metrics. The proposed model can be used for the distributed migration motion of large-scale unmanned swarms, such as navigation and target tracking. •A feedback mechanism is developed for leaders to balance goal-oriented and social-oriented behavior.•A feedback mechanism for followers is developed to adjust their perception range adaptively.•An improved distributed swarm model with informed agents to prevent swarm-splitting failure is proposed.•Four metrics are provided to evaluate the performance of preventing swarm-splitting.•Simulation results show that the proposed swarm model outperforms the existing swarm model under the four metrics.