Related papers: Cargo Towing by Artificial Swimmers
Here we characterize the motility of athermal swimming droplets within the framework of active rotational diffusion. Just like active colloids, their trajectories can be modeled with a constant velocity $V$ and a slow angular diffusion, but…
Taking inspiration from the crawling motion of biological cells on a substrate, we consider a physical model of self-propulsion where the spatio-temporal driving can involve both, a mechanical actuation by active force couples, and a…
We numerically study the escape kinetics of a self-propelled Janus particle, carrying a cargo, from a meta-stable state. We assume that the cargo is attached to the Janus particle by a flexible harmonic spring. We take into account the…
External fields can decidedly alter the free energy landscape of soft materials and can be exploited as a powerful tool for the assembly of targeted nanostructures and colloidal materials. Here, we use computer simulations to demonstrate…
Inspired by the classical Kepler and Rutherford problem, we investigate an analogous set-up in the context of active microswimmers: the behavior of a deformable microswimmer in a swirl flow. First we identify new steady bound states in the…
There are numerous devices currently known with the purpose of reducing the irregularity of the flow upstream of the propeller and to decrease by that means the propeller-induced vibration and noise. Many of these devices are wing-shaped…
Microscopic self-propelled swimmers capable of autonomous navigation through complex environments provide appealing opportunities for localization, pick-up and delivery of micro-and nanoscopic objects. Inspired by motile cells and bacteria,…
The navigation of micro-robots in complex flow environments is controlled by rheotaxis, the reorientation with respect to flow gradients. Here we demonstrate how payloads can be exploited to enhance the motion against flows. Using fully…
Active transport of biomolecules assisted by motor proteins is imperative for the proper functioning of cellular activities. Inspired by the diffusion of active agents in crowded cellular channels, we computationally investigate the…
Fishes, cetaceans, and many other aquatic vertebrates undulate their bodies to propel themselves through water. Swimming requires an intricate interplay between sensing the environment, making decisions, controlling internal dynamics, and…
With the continuing rapid development of artificial microrobots and active particles, questions of microswimmer guidance and control are becoming ever more relevant and prevalent. In both the applications and theoretical study of such…
We discover an instability mechanism in suspensions of self-propelled particles that does not involve active stress. Instead, it is driven by a subtle interplay of inertia, swimmer motility, and concentration fluctuations, through a crucial…
Both natural and artificial small-scale swimmers may often self-propel in environments subject to complex geometrical constraints. While most past theoretical work on low-Reynolds number locomotion addressed idealised geometrical…
Most models designed to study the bidirectional movement of cargos as they are driven by molecular motors rely on the idea that motors of different polarities can be coordinated by external agents if arranged into a motor-cargo complex to…
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…
Ciliated microswimmers and flagellated bacteria alter their swimming trajectories to follow the direction of an applied electric field exhibiting electrotaxis. Both for matters of application and physical modelling, it is instructive to…
The current work studies the dynamics of a microswimmer in pressure-driven flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid. Employing the second-order fluid model, we show that the self-propelling swimmer experiences a viscoelastic swimming lift in…
The study of active matter consisting of many self-propelled (active) swimmers in an imposed flow is important for many applications. Self-propelled swimmers may represent both living and artificial ones such as bacteria and chemically…
Active (i.e., self-propelled or swimming) particles moving through an isotropic fluid exhibit conventional diffusive behavior. We report anomalous diffusion of an active particle moving in an anisotropic, nematic background. Whilst the…
As a natural and functional behavior, various microorganisms exhibit gravitaxis by orienting and swimming upwards against gravity. Swimming autophoretic nanomotors described herein, comprising bimetallic nanorods, preferentially orient…