MSP: a 3D flocking boids simulator

This project concerns the design and implementation of an open-source flocking boids simulator, designed as a tool to analyze and characterize flock-like collective emerging behaviors. Each boid is conceived as an active agent and modelled by a point-mass approximation. Boid movements in a 3D space are guided by a set of elementary steering behaviors, each implemented as a force acting on the boid's point mass. Each boid is affected by interactions with both the environment and other boids. The set of considered behaviors are inspired by the well-known approach introduced in 1987 by C. W. Reynolds. The simulator delivers a 3D visual interface and provides as an output file all the instantaneous microscopic information related to each boid (positions and velocities over time), allowing in this way subsequent analysis, such as searching for synthetic and higher-level descriptions of collective behaviors, relying for instance on global network and meta-structural properties.