Efficient Large-Scale Simulation of Fish Schooling Behavior Using Voronoi Tessellations and Fuzzy Clustering

Abstract

This paper introduces an efficient approach to reduce the computational cost of simulating collective behaviors, such as fish schooling, using Individual-Based Models (IBMs). The proposed technique employs adaptive and dynamic load-balancing domain partitioning, which utilizes unsupervised machine-learning models to cluster a large number of simulated individuals into sub-schools based on their spatial-temporal locations. It also utilizes Voronoi tessellations to construct non-overlapping simulation subdomains. This approach minimizes agent-to-agent communication and balances the load both spatially and temporally, ultimately resulting in reduced computational complexity. Experimental simulations demonstrate that this partitioning approach outperforms the standard regular grid-based domain decomposition, achieving a reduction in computational cost while maintaining spatial and temporal load balance. The approach presented in this paper has the potential to be applied to other collective behavior simulations requiring large-scale simulations with a substantial number of individuals.