Spatially-explicit modeling to refine critical density predictions

Develop spatially-explicit theoretical models that incorporate heterogeneous resource patchiness and spatial clustering to refine predictions of the critical agent density ρc at which the decentralized multi-agent system transitions from memory-dominated to stigmergy-dominated coordination.

Background

The current theoretical framework uses a mean-field approximation and experiments with largely uniform resource distributions. The authors note that spatial clustering and patchiness can affect collective dynamics and may shift the predicted critical density.

This open problem calls for models that explicitly represent spatial heterogeneity to improve the accuracy and applicability of phase transition predictions beyond well-mixed assumptions.