Sheepdog Strategy

Herding a small group of “noisy” sheep holds hints for computer algorithms

- Rohini Subrahmanyam

Sheepdog trials put trained dogs to work herding small groups of sheep.

WATCHING HOURS of “sheepdog YouTube”—competitions where trained dogs shepherd a small number of unpredictable sheep—gave scientists a key insight into how to control chaotic swarms. The trick, they write in Science Advances, is to exploit the sheep’s indecisiveness.