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Complex Dynamics and Interaction Networks
in Animal Societies (DYNACTOM)
Organisation
Head
Faculty members, CNRS Researchers, Technicians, Engineers and Staff members
Post-doctoral fellows
- Sepideh Bazazi, Fondation Fyssen Grant (2011-2012)
PhD students
- Anaïs Khuong, Grant from the Regional Council of Midi Pyrénées and the PRES of the Université de Toulouse, co-supervised by J.-J. Bézian & J. Gautrais (2010-2013)
- Chaker Sbaï, Complex Systems Research Grant,
supervised by P. Degond, C. Jost (2008-2012)
- Sofia Bouchebti, MNERT Grant, supervised by Vincent Fourcassié (2011-2014)
- Ugo Lopez, MNERT Grant, co-supervised by Guy Theraulaz & Richard Fournier (2011-2014)
Undergraduate students
Research activity
The main research goal of the Dynactom research group is the experimental and modelling approach of the behavioural and cognitive mechanisms underlying numerous collective phenomena observed in animal groups and societies. This multi-disciplinary project fits into the general context of systems biology of social behaviour.
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We seek to understand how information is processed in vertebrates (fish schools, herds of ungulates, human crowds) and invertebrates (swarms of social arthropods) and what mechanisms permit the individual members of these groups to come to a collective decision, coordinate a nest construction or perform complex and sophisticated collective displacements. |
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These collective behaviours result from multiple interactions between individuals themselves and with their environment that involve various types of information exchange (chemical, tactile, vibratory, visual). Our goal is to identify and to quantify these interactions as well as their consequences on individual behaviour and physiology in order to predict a given collective phenomenon.
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The general methodology to study such phenomena consists in the characterization and quantification of the behaviours both on the individual and the collective level and to link these two levels of description through specifically chosen modelling techniques. The decentralized and dynamic character of the studied systems involves the use of modelling techniques that are based on distributed architectures (individual based models) or partial differential equations. |
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The development of models whose ingredients are validated by dedicated experiments and that reproduce the dynamics of the studied phenomena provides a way to assess how each of the selected behavioural variables contributes to the emergent collective properties. |
This rigorous approach based on the involved mechanisms leads to models with a definite explicative value and also opens perspectives to develop artificial swarm intelligent systems with applications in the control of groups of animals, robots or both.
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The DYNACTOM research team is organized into 5 main research axes:
Specific research projects
The DYNACTOM research team is currently leading or part of the following projects:
- MESOMORPH (2007-20010)
Social insects nests as 3D networks: morphogenesis and structural designs, project funded by the ANR BIOSYS (coordinator: G. Theraulaz)
- PANURGE (2008-2010)
Collective motion in gregarious vertebrates: Experimental, control and modelling approach of complex dynamics in herds of sheep, project funded by the ANR BLANC (coordinators: R. Bon & J. Gautrais)
- EPIGENESIS ANS SOCIAL TRANSITIONS IN SPIDERS (2008)
project funded by the CNRS (Exploratory and interdisciplinary projects, coordinator: R. Jeanson)
- DYOPTRI (2008-1010)
Dynamics and optimization of intermittent transport processes, project funded by ANR PCV (team coordinator: V. Fourcassié)
- PEDIGREE (2009-2011)
PedestrIan groups: emergence of collective behaviour through experiments, modelling and simulation, project funded by ANR SYSCOMM (team coordinator: G. Theraulaz)
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, Raphaël Jeanson
