The Flocking reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Flocking

Flocking is a common demonstration of emergent behaviour. It is a simulation of simple agents which are allowed to move, with basic rules governing their movement. The result is alike to a flock of birds, a school of fish or swarm of insects.

Basic flocking is controlled by three simple rules:

1. Separation - avoid crowding neighbours
2. Alignment - steer towards average heading of neighbours
3. Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbours

With these three simple rules, the flock moves in an extremely realistic way. Creating complex motion and interaction that would be extremely hard to create otherwise.

Flocking is a common technology in screensavers, and has found its use in animation. Flocking has been used in many films. Disney's The Lion King (1994) included a wildebeest stampede.

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