Related papers: Crawling on directional surfaces
Frictional sliding contact in hydrodynamic environments can be found in a range of engineering applications. Accurate modeling requires an integrated numerical framework capable of resolving large relative motions, multiphase interactions,…
Snake robots have the potential to maneuver through tightly packed and complex environments. One challenge in enabling them to do so is the complexity in determining how to coordinate their many degrees-of-freedom to create purposeful…
We study the effect of viscoelastic dynamics on the frictional properties of a (mean field) spring-block system pulled on a rough surface by an external drive. When the drive moves at constant velocity V, two dynamical regimes are observed:…
The motion of submerged magnetic microspheres rolling at a glass-water interface has been studied using magnetic rotation and optical tweezers combined with bright-field microscopy particle tracking techniques. Individual microspheres of…
Elastic confinements are an important component of many biological systems and dictate the transport properties of suspended particles under flow. In this chapter, we review the Brownian motion of a particle moving in the vicinity of a…
Deterministic surfaces are constructs of which profile, topography and textures are integral to the function of the system they enclose. They are designed to yield a predetermined rubbing response. Developing such entities relies on…
Developing deterministic surfaces relies on controlling the structure of the rubbing interface so that not only the surface is of optimized topography, but also is able to self-adjust its tribological behaviour according to the evolution of…
The hydrodynamic interactions between a sedimenting microswimmer and a solid wall have ubiquitous biological and technological applications. A plethora of gravity-induced swimming dynamics near a planar no-slip wall provides a platform for…
A new method has been proposed to evaluate the frictional force in the stationary state. This method is applied to the 1-dimensional model of clean surfaces. The kinetic frictional force is seen to depend on velocity in general, but the…
The recent development of novel aerial vehicles capable of physically interacting with the environment leads to new applications such as contact-based inspection. These tasks require the robotic system to exchange forces with…
We introduce a model for zwitterionic monolayers and investigate its tribological response to changes in applied load, sliding velocity, and temperature by means of molecular-dynamics simulations. The proposed model exhibits different…
The objective of this note is to share some reflections of the authors regarding the use of sliding mode designs in control systems. We believe the abundant, and ever increasing, appearance of this kind of works on our scientific…
The migratory dynamics of cells in physiological processes, ranging from wound healing to cancer metastasis, rely on contact-mediated cell-cell interactions. These interactions play a key role in shaping the stochastic trajectories of…
A two-dimensional \underline{Frenkel-Kontorova model} under a steady external force is used to study the nonlinear sliding friction between flat macroscopic surfaces with a lubricant layer in between. The nonequilibrium properties of the…
We present experimental data of the motion of a rimmed checker's piece on a polished horizontal tray, in two specific conditions: with the substrate harmonically shaken at 20 Hz, and with a static substrate. The latter experiment…
Contacts between particles in dense, sheared suspensions are believed to underpin much of their rheology. Roughness and adhesion are known to constrain the relative motion of particles, and thus globally affect the shear response, but an…
In this communication we address some hydrodynamic aspects of recently revisited drift mechanism of biogenic mixing in the ocean (Katija and Dabiri, Nature vol. 460, pp. 624-626, 2009). The relevance of the locomotion gait at various…
Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…
The motor part of a crawling eukaryotic cell can be represented schematically as an active continuum layer. The main active processes in this layer are protrusion, originating from non-equilibrium polymerization of actin fibers,…
In jamming systems like colloids, emulsions, foams, and biological tissues, significant deformation is essential for processes such as material scraping or wound self-healing. To adequately spread a foam or cream over a surface, external…