Dresden 2006 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AKSOE: Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
AKSOE 9: Traffic Dynamics, Urban and Regional Systems
AKSOE 9.4: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 29. März 2006, 15:30–16:00, BAR 205
Traffic on pre-existing ant trails: Comparison with empirical results — •Alexander John1, Andreas Schadschneider1, Debashish Chowdhury2, Katsuhiro Nishinari3, Thresiamma Varghese4, and Raghavendra Gadagkar4 — 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln — 2Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India — 3Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Tokyo, Japan — 4Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
We have developed a minimal cellular automaton model for traffic on pre-existing ant trails. The model makes explicit qualitative as well as quantitative predictions. These predictions are compared to empirical data for traffic on existing trails. We will describe an experimental setup including the choice of an appropriate species (Leptogenys Processionalis), as well as the methods of measurement. As we assume some kind of evolutionary generated optimization, measurements were carried out under natural conditions for different scenarios like foraging or migration.
The discussion of results is mainly divided into two parts. First we start comparing on a qualitative level, which includes the spatial distribution of workers on the trail. Clustering phenomena predicted by the theoretical approach seem to play an important role in the empirically observed behaviour. Also certain patterns like the dominance of one direction (e.g. foodbound) over the other one (e.g. nestbound) can be found, which are directly linked to the current task the colony has to perform. On a quantitative level, also the variation of the current is considered.