– As with most artificial life simulations, Boids is an example of emergent behavior; that is, the complexity of Boids arises from the interaction of individual agents (the boids, in this case) adhering to a set of simple rules.
– The rules applied in the simplest Boids world are as follows:
– Separation: Steer to avoid crowding local flock mates.
– Alignment: Steer towards the average heading of local flock mates.
– Cohesion: Steer to move toward the average position (center of mass) of local flock mates.
– More complex rules can be added, such as obstacle avoidance and goal seeking.