Related papers: Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers
Microscopic mechanisms of natural processes are frequently understood in terms of random walk models by analyzing local particle transitions. This is because these models properly account for dynamic processes at the molecular level and…
Programming the static friction of mechanical interfaces is critical for soft robotics, haptics, and precision gripping. Static friction is governed by the real contact area, and standard rough surfaces exhibit a linear area-load scaling…
Limbless terrestrial animals exhibit exceptional locomotor versatility and control, currently unmatched by engineered counterparts. Here, we introduce a computational framework that enables soft synthetic snakes to navigate unstructured,…
The understanding of sliding friction for wet, patterned surfaces from first principles is challenging. While emerging applications have sought design principles from biology, a general framework is lacking because soft interfaces…
Transport phenomena in complex and dynamic microscopic environments are fundamentally shaped by hydrodynamic interactions. In particular, microparticle transport in porous media is governed by the delicate interplay between…
Numerous cell-types have shown a remarkable ability to detect and move along gradients in stiffness of an underlying substrate -- a process known as durotaxis. The mechanisms underlying durotaxis are still unresolved, but generally believed…
A tribological system consisting of two contacting blocks has been considered. One of them is arranged between two springs, the other is driven periodically. The kinetics of the system has been studied in the boundary friction mode, when an…
While friction stems from the fundamental interactions between atoms at a contact interface, its best descriptions at the macroscopic scale remain phenomenological. The so called "rate-and-state" models, which specify the friction response…
We studied locomotion of a crawler on a thin Newtonian fluid film whose viscosity varied spatially. We first derived a general locomotion velocity formula with fluid viscosity variations via the lubrication theory. For further analysis, the…
For more than a century lattice random walks have been employed ubiquitously, both as a theoretical laboratory to develop intuition about more complex stochastic processes and as a tool to interpret a vast array of empirical observations.…
To prolong lifetime and reduce energy consumption, a thorough understanding of abrasive wear is essential. The potentially crucial influence of surface topography intricacies on tribological behavior have been obscured, since roughness and…
Movements of molecular motors on cytoskeletal filaments are described by directed walks on a line. Detachment from this line is allowed to occur with a small probability. Motion in the surrounding fluid is described by symmetric random…
A 3D copepod trajectory is recorded in the laboratory, using 2 digital cameras. The copepod undergoes a very structured type of trajectory, with successive moves displaying intermittent amplitudes. We perform a statistical analysis of this…
In dealing with thermal transport in composite systems, high contrast materials pose a special problem for numerical simulation: the time scale or step size in the high conductivity material must be much smaller than in the low conductivity…
Locomotion and transport of microorganisms in fluids is an essential aspect of life. Search for food, orientation toward light, spreading of off-spring, and the formation of colonies are only possible due to locomotion. Swimming at the…
Active particles with their characteristic feature of self-propulsion are regarded as the simplest models for motility in living systems. The accumulation of active particles in low activity regions has led to the general belief that…
The ability to navigate in complex, inhomogeneous environments is fundamental to survival at all length scales, giving rise to the rapid development of various subfields in bio-locomotion such as the well established concept of chemotaxis.…
Animals locomote for various reasons: to search for food, find suitable habitat, pursue prey, escape from predators, or seek a mate. The grand scale of biodiversity contributes to the great locomotory design and mode diversity. Various…
The connection between friction and jamming in granular media, molecular glasses, and complex fluids is explored. The paper first reviews the way friction is measured, the types of results that are observed, and what is known about the…
Durotaxis motion is a spectacular phenomenon manifesting itself by the autonomous motion of a nano-object between parts of a substrate with different stiffness. This motion usually takes place along a stiffness gradient from softer to…