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Abstract
Bats navigating with echolocation - which is a type of active sensing achieved by
interpreting echoes resulting from self-generated ultrasonic pulses - exhibit unique
behaviors during group flight. While bats may benefit from eavesdropping on their
peers׳ echolocation, they also potentially suffer from confusion between their own
and peers׳ pulses, caused by an effect called frequency jamming. This hardship of
group flight is supported by experimental observations of bats simplifying their sound-scape
by shifting their pulse frequencies or suppressing echolocation altogether. Here,
we investigate eavesdropping and varying pulse emission rate from a modeling perspective
to understand these behaviors׳ potential benefits and detriments. We define an agent-based
model of echolocating bats avoiding collisions in a three-dimensional tunnel. Through
simulation, we show that bats with reasonably accurate eavesdropping can reduce collisions
compared to those neglecting information from peers. In large populations, bats minimize
frequency jamming by decreasing pulse emission rate, while collision risk increases;
conversely, increasing pulse emission rate minimizes collisions by allowing more sensing
information generated per bat. These strategies offer benefits for both biological
and engineered systems, since frequency jamming is a concern in systems using active
sensing.