I think (maybe) a better question might be if a boids strategy could somehow be used to avoid a pandemic(?) - if all information is known. Seems like we are all performing a 6ft. collision detection @ the moment.
Speaking of boids and social distancing, Craig Reynolds (author of Boids) has also developed the open source library/toolkit "OpenSteer: Steering Behaviors for Autonomous Characters". It's based on his GDC 1999 paper, "Steering Behaviors For Autonomous Characters". I think there's a Unity3D plugin that incorporates a derivative of that code.
In OpenSteer terms, social distancing would include "unaligned collision avoidance" and "separation" steering behaviors, which can be combined with other behaviors including "seek", "flee", "pursuit", "evasion", "offset pursuit", "arrival", "obstacle avoidance", "wanderer", "path following", "wall following", "containment", "flow field following", "cohesion", "alignment", and "leader following". You can also implement your own custom plug-ins, if you need something special like "curly floor spinning".
OpenSteer is a C++ library to help construct steering behaviors for autonomous characters in games and animation. In addition to the library, OpenSteer provides an OpenGL-based application called OpenSteerDemo which displays predefined demonstrations of steering behaviors. The user can quickly prototype, visualize, annotate and debug new steering behaviors by writing a plug-in for OpenSteerDemo.
OpenSteer provides a toolkit of steering behaviors, defined in terms of an abstract mobile agent called a "vehicle." Sample code is provided, including a simple vehicle implementation and examples of combining simple steering behaviors to produce more complex behavior. OpenSteer's classes have been designed to flexibly integrate with existing game engines by either layering or inheritance.
OpenSteerDemo's plug-in framework allows a game AI programmer to quickly prototype behaviors during game design, and to develop behaviors before the main game engine is finished. OpenSteerDemo allows the user to interactively adjust aspects of the simulation. The user can: start, stop and single step time, select the vehicle/ character/ agent of interest, adjust the camera's view and its tracking behavior.
OpenSteer is distributed as open source software in accordance with the MIT License. OpenSteer was developed with the generous support of Sony Computer Entertainment America. OpenSteer is supported on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
