Daniel Charbonneau

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Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Charbonneau, D., Dornhaus, A., & Bengston, S. (2021). Temnothorax. In NA. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_125

Journals/Publications

• Chen, J., Guo, X., Charbonneau, D., Azizi, A., Fewell, J., & Kang, Y. (2024). Dynamics of Information Flow and Task Allocation of Social Insect Colonies: Impacts of Spatial Interactions and Task Switching. Bulletin of mathematical biology, 86(5), 50.
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  Models of social interaction dynamics have been powerful tools for understanding the efficiency of information spread and the robustness of task allocation in social insect colonies. How workers spatially distribute within the colony, or spatial heterogeneity degree (SHD), plays a vital role in contact dynamics, influencing information spread and task allocation. We used agent-based models to explore factors affecting spatial heterogeneity and information flow, including the number of task groups, variation in spatial arrangements, and levels of task switching, to study: (1) the impact of multiple task groups on SHD, contact dynamics, and information spread, and (2) the impact of task switching on SHD and contact dynamics. Both models show a strong linear relationship between the dynamics of SHD and contact dynamics, which exists for different initial conditions. The multiple-task-group model without task switching reveals the impacts of the number and spatial arrangements of task locations on information transmission. The task-switching model allows task-switching with a probability through contact between individuals. The model indicates that the task-switching mechanism enables a dynamical state of task-related spatial fidelity at the individual level. This spatial fidelity can assist the colony in redistributing their workforce, with consequent effects on the dynamics of spatial heterogeneity degree. The spatial fidelity of a task group is the proportion of workers who perform that task and have preferential walking styles toward their task location. Our analysis shows that the task switching rate between two tasks is an exponentially decreasing function of the spatial fidelity and contact rate. Higher spatial fidelity leads to more agents aggregating to task location, reducing contact between groups, thus making task switching more difficult. Our results provide important insights into the mechanisms that generate spatial heterogeneity and deepen our understanding of how spatial heterogeneity impacts task allocation, social interaction, and information spread.
• Qiu, Z., Kang, Y., Feng, T., & Charbonneau, D. (2021). Dynamics of task allocation in social insect colonies: scaling effects of colony size versus work activities. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 82(5), 42-42. doi:10.1007/s00285-021-01589-z
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  The mechanisms through which work is organized are central to understanding how complex systems function. Previous studies suggest that task organization can emerge via nonlinear dynamical processes wherein individuals interact and modify their behavior through simple rules. However, there is very limited theory about how those processes are shaped by behavioral variation within social groups. In this work, we propose an adaptive modeling framework on task allocation by incorporating variation both in task performance and task-related metabolic rates. We study the scaling effects of colony size on the resting probability as well as task allocation. We also numerically explore the effects of stochastic noise on task allocation in social insect colonies. Our theoretical and numerical results show that: (a) changes in colony size can regulate the probability of colony resting and the allocation of tasks, and the direction of regulation depends on the nonlinear metabolic scaling effects of tasks; (b) increased response thresholds may cause colonies to rest in varied patterns such as periodicity. In this case, we observed an interesting bubble phenomenon in the task allocation of social insect colonies for the first time; (c) stochastic noise can cause work activities and task demand to fluctuate within a range, where the amplitude of the fluctuation is positively correlated with the intensity of noise.

Proceedings Publications

• Charbonneau, D., Jackson, J. A., Diel, D. D., Boskovic, J. D., & Pratt, S. (2021). Application of Bio-Inspired Sensing, Perception and Control Technology to Autonomous UAV Missions. In NA.