Enhancing convergence efficiency of self-propelled agents using direction preference

In this paper, we investigate the effect of direction preference on self-propelled agents. In the well-known Vicsek model, an agent treats its neighbors equally and updates its direction by the average direction of its neighbors. Whereas, in this study, agents prefer to synchronize with their neighbors moving in a certain direction, which is called preference direction. The center agent judges the influence value from its neighbor according to the direction angle between them. We assume that there exists a preference direction angle β. When the direction angle between the neighbor and the center agent is closer to β, the neighbor has greater influence on the center agent. The modified Vicsek model with preference direction angle is called direction preference model. We use the parameter α(0<α≤1) to adjust the effect of direction preference. The larger the value of α, the weaker the effect of direction preference. If α=1, the direction preference will lose its effect. In the simulation experiments, different values of β and α are discussed. Simulation results demonstrate that in noise-free environment the direction preference model with optimal β=3π/8 can accelerate the synchronization speed; in noise environment the direction preference model with β be in [3π/8,5π/8] has stronger robustness than the original Vicsek model and the optimal value of β is altered.