Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal
How can a human collective coordinate, for example to move a banquet table, when each person is influenced by the inertia of others who may be inferior at the task? We hypothesized that large groups cannot coordinate through touch alone, accruing to a zero-sum scenario where individuals inferior at...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90261 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48453 |
| _version_ | 1811689650002067456 |
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| author | Takagi, Atsushi Hirashima, Masaya Nozaki, Daichi Burdet, Etienne |
| author2 | School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Takagi, Atsushi Hirashima, Masaya Nozaki, Daichi Burdet, Etienne |
| author_sort | Takagi, Atsushi |
| collection | NTU |
| description | How can a human collective coordinate, for example to move a banquet table, when each person is influenced by the inertia of others who may be inferior at the task? We hypothesized that large groups cannot coordinate through touch alone, accruing to a zero-sum scenario where individuals inferior at the task hinder superior ones. We tested this hypothesis by examining how dyads, triads and tetrads, whose right hands were physically coupled together, followed a common moving target. Surprisingly, superior individuals followed the target accurately even when coupled to an inferior group, and the interaction benefits increased with the group size. A computational model shows that these benefits arose as each individual uses their respective interaction force to infer the collective’s target and enhance their movement planning, which permitted coordination in seconds independent of the collective’s size. By estimating the collective’s movement goal, its individuals make physical interaction beneficial, swift and scalable. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:51:28Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/90261 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:51:28Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/902612023-03-04T17:17:38Z Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal Takagi, Atsushi Hirashima, Masaya Nozaki, Daichi Burdet, Etienne School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Group Dynamics DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering Coordination How can a human collective coordinate, for example to move a banquet table, when each person is influenced by the inertia of others who may be inferior at the task? We hypothesized that large groups cannot coordinate through touch alone, accruing to a zero-sum scenario where individuals inferior at the task hinder superior ones. We tested this hypothesis by examining how dyads, triads and tetrads, whose right hands were physically coupled together, followed a common moving target. Surprisingly, superior individuals followed the target accurately even when coupled to an inferior group, and the interaction benefits increased with the group size. A computational model shows that these benefits arose as each individual uses their respective interaction force to infer the collective’s target and enhance their movement planning, which permitted coordination in seconds independent of the collective’s size. By estimating the collective’s movement goal, its individuals make physical interaction beneficial, swift and scalable. Published version 2019-05-29T07:24:02Z 2019-12-06T17:44:17Z 2019-05-29T07:24:02Z 2019-12-06T17:44:17Z 2019 Journal Article Takagi, A., Hirashima, M., Nozaki, D., & Burdet, E. (2019). Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal. eLife, 8, e41328-. doi:10.7554/eLife.41328 2050-084X https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90261 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48453 10.7554/eLife.41328 en eLife © 2019 Takagi et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. 19 p. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Group Dynamics DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering Coordination Takagi, Atsushi Hirashima, Masaya Nozaki, Daichi Burdet, Etienne Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title | Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title_full | Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title_fullStr | Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title_full_unstemmed | Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title_short | Individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| title_sort | individuals physically interacting in a group rapidly coordinate their movement by estimating the collective goal |
| topic | Group Dynamics DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering Coordination |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90261 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48453 |
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