The Robot Sheepdog Project has developed a mobile robot that gathers a floc
k of ducks and manoeuvres them safely to a specified goal position. This is
the first example of a robot system that exploits and controls an animal's
behaviour to achieve a useful task. A potential-field model of flocking be
haviour was constructed and used to investigate methods for generalised hoc
k control. One possible algorithm is described and demonstrated to work bot
h in simulation and in the real world. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All r
ights reserved.