Related papers: Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers
We formulate and solve the locomotion problem for a bio-inspired crawler consisting of two active elastic segments (i.e., capable of changing their rest lengths), resting on three supports providing directional frictional interactions. The…
A living cell actively generates traction forces on its environment with its actin cytoskeleton. These forces deform the cell elastic substrate which, in turn, affects the traction forces exerted by the cell and can consequently modify the…
Microscopic robots could perform tasks with high spatial precision, such as acting in biological tissues on the scale of individual cells, provided they can reach precise locations. This paper evaluates the feasibility of in vivo locomotion…
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…
The concept of random walk, in which particles or waves undergo multiple collisions with the microscopic constituents of a surrounding medium, is central to understanding diffusive transport across many research areas. However, this…
Effective locomotion in nature happens by transitioning across multiple modes (e.g., walk, run, climb). Despite this, far more mechanistic understanding of terrestrial locomotion has been on how to generate and stabilize around…
We investigate atomic scale friction between clean graphite surfaces by using molecular dynamics. The simulation reproduces atomic scale stick-slip motion and low frictional coefficient, both of which are observed in experiments using…
Friction is a ubiquitous phenomenon that greatly affects our everyday lives and is responsible for large amounts of energy loss in industrialised societies. Layered materials such as graphene have interesting frictional properties and are…
Nanoscaled friction is a fundamental tribological phenomenon with complex behavior of its dynamical force. Here, we utilize the Prandtl-Tomlinson framework to investigate systematically the different means of control of the frictional force…
We address the velocity fluctuations of fastly moving cracks in stressed materials. One possible mechanism for such fluctuations is the interaction of the main crack with micro cracks (irrespective whether these are existing material…
Navigation of microorganisms is controlled by internal processes ultimately sensitive to mechanical or chemical signaling encountered along the path. In many natural environments, such as porous soils or physiological ducts, motile species…
Friction is a phenomenon that manifests across all spatial and temporal scales, from the molecular to the macroscopic scale. It describes the dissipation of energy from the motion of particles or abstract reaction coordinates and arises in…
The results obtained from molecular dynamics simulations of the friction at an interface between polymer melts and weakly attractive crystalline surfaces are reported. We consider a coarse-grained bead-spring model of linear chains with…
We investigate how a weak constant force becomes detectable through fluctuations in anomalous transport in strongly heterogeneous media. Rather than focusing on the mean drift, we show that the key signature of the force appears in the…
Animals such as rabbits and birds can instantly generate locomotion behavior in reaction to a dynamic, approaching object, such as a person or a rock, despite having possibly never seen the object before and having limited perception of the…
Frictional forces are a key ingredient of any physical description of the macroscopic world, as they account for the phenomena causing transformation of mechanical energy into heat. They are ubiquitous in nature, and a wide range of…
The ability of animals to interact with complex dynamics is unmatched in robots. Especially important to the interaction performances is the online adaptation of body dynamics, which can be modeled as an impedance behaviour. However, the…
We develop a theory of static friction by modeling the homogeneous surfaces of contact as being composed of a regular array of compressible elastic smooth microscopic inclines. Static friction is thought of as the resistance due to having…
As mechanical devices in the nano/micro length scale are increasingly employed, it is crucial to understand nanoscale friction and wear especially at technically relevant sliding velocities. Accordingly, a novel technique has been developed…
We present experimental and numerical results for a model crawler which is able to extract net positional changes from reciprocal shape changes, i.e. 'breathing-like' deformations, thanks to directional, frictional interactions with a…