EXC 2002/1: Learning of Intelligent Swarm Behavior (SP 12)

The main objective of the project is the systematic quantification of collective behaviour of fish in order to derive data-driven models of observed collective behaviour across different ecological contexts. Here, two important ecological contexts shall be compared: collective exploration and collective predator response. The specific tasks involve the development of a parametric description of the behavioural repertoire of individual fish within a fish school from existing video tracking data, as well as a quantitative, comparative analysis of the experimental data across the different ecological scenarios using model inference and information theoretic approaches, both at the micro-scale (individual behaviour) as well as the macro-scale (collective behaviour). The project involves also the acquisition of additional experimental data for the collective behaviour of Poeciliids in different ecological contexts in laboratory as well as in the field.