Link to video on YouTube

Abstract: “I will present distributed decision-making dynamics for multi-agent systems, motivated by studies of animal groups, such as house-hunting honeybees, and their extraordinary ability to make collective decisions that are both robust to disturbance and adaptable to change. The dynamics derive from principles of symmetry, consensus, and bifurcation in networked systems, exploiting instability as a means to flexibly transition from one stable solution to another. Feedback dynamics are derived for the bifurcation control, a variable representing social effort, such that flexible transition is made a controlled adaptive response.”