Autonomous elastic microswimmer
Abstract
A model of an autonomous three-sphere microswimmer is proposed by implementing a coupling effect between the two natural lengths of an elastic microswimmer. Such a coupling mechanism is motivated by the previous models for synchronization phenomena in coupled oscillator systems. We numerically show that a microswimmer can acquire a nonzero steady state velocity and a finite phase difference between the oscillations in the natural lengths. These velocity and phase difference are almost independent of the initial phase difference. There is a finite range of the coupling parameter for which a microswimmer can have an autonomous directed motion. The stability of the phase difference is investigated both numerically and analytically in order to determine its bifurcation structure.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.03210,
title = {Autonomous elastic microswimmer},
author = {Katsutomo Era and Yuki Koyano and Yuto Hosaka and Kento Yasuda and Hiroyuki Kitahata and Shigeyuki Komura},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.03210},
year = {2021}
}