Here's a project from 1998 where a Boids-like model was used for engineering purposes. A robot controller was designed to guide a simulated flock to a goal on the edge of a circular arena. The robot worked on real flocking ducks too, on the first try. The Boids sim was similar enough to the birds' behavior in this very limited domain to be used as an engineering sim.

'Robot Sheepdog' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tefXVXscNDM