Marching transition of band members

Our Matlab experts have invented and implemented an algorithm that generates optimal strategy of moving for band members.

The strategy is meant to be used by music band members marching in a rectangular-shaped field from one formation to another.

There are certain restrictions applied to group members moving:

• they can move along the straight lines in a single direction,
• they are allowed to make only 90 degree turns at a time.

Moreover, they are supposed to complete marching within a certain time period and avoid collisions.

First of all, the developers have implemented distributing positions available among the group members at a time, by using dynamic programming.

Then the number of possible collisions was minimized via exchanging positions among members.

And finally, the rest of collisions were eliminated by managing idle time gaps (pausing at certain time periods during moving).

The algorithms were created assuming that the task is universal and has to be compatible not only with a fixed number of formations but also with processing of new data.