A sedge of cranes, a mob of emus, a herd of wildebeest, a pack of bicyclists, and a pod of whales all show complex
behavioral patterns. Despite being composed of distinct individuals, these sorts of groups all move fluidly as
one. They stick together, form intricate patterns, avoid obstacles, search for and find food, flee predators, and
so on. But how complex is modeling their behavior? During the mid-1980's, several theorists proposed that flock-like
behavior could be the result of each individual following a small number of deceptively simple rules. In 1986,
Craig Reynolds developed his system of 'boids' (boids rather than
birds, since the model works well for many other animals). Since then, others have developed and implemented boid
models, and boid-modeling techniques have spread into other fields.
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