Meeting Abstract
Collective behaviors, in which an aggregation of cooperative agents form a structure to traverse an obstacle have been studied in ants, termites, and other small animals. Some study of this topic has been done in large animals (e.g. the tradition of castelles (human towers) in Barcelona, dating to the 18th century). The United States Naval Academy is home to an annual, world-famous example of human tower building, with recorded data as far back as 1962, that provides a unique study system for examining a structure constructed by cooperative agents. During Herndon Climb, the entire “plebe” (first year) class works as a team to attempt to scale an monument that has been generously lubricated with shortening and a fine mist of water. Maximal performance is motivated by the promise of quick promotion for the first to the top, and that upon completion the members of the class are considered “plebes no more”. We analyze video of the climb from multiple angles, interview and survey participants, conduct modeling and simulation, and examine correlations with measurements of midshipmen strength and endurance (e.g. physical readiness tests administered to all participants). The results could be applicable to robotic constructions in which individual agents arrange themselves to defeat obstacles and gaps. The results also allow comparison between studies in small insect taxa and the large body mass system studied here.
