Related papers: Using Shape Diversity on the way to new Structure-…
Biological microswimmers often encounter deformable boundaries in physiological conditions; for instance, the viscoelastic walls of reproductive tract during migration of spermatozoa, or host tissue during early bacterial biofilm formation.…
This study investigates the dynamics and controllability of a Purcell three-link microswimmer equipped with passive elastic torsional coils at its joints. By controlling the spontaneous curvature, we analyse the swimmers motion using both…
Active systems contain self-propelled particles and can spontaneously self-organize into patterns making them attractive candidates for the self-assembly of smart soft materials. One key limitation of our present understanding of these…
Fish swim by undulating their bodies. These propulsive motions require coordinated shape changes of a body that interacts with its fluid environment, but the specific shape coordination that leads to robust turning and swimming motions…
Since the lipid raft model was developed at the end of the last century, it became clear that the specific molecular arrangements of phospholipid assemblies within a membrane have profound implications in a vast range of physiological…
We employ three numerical methods to explore the motion of low Reynolds number swimmers, modeling the hydrodynamic interactions by means of the Oseen tensor approximation, lattice Boltzmann simulations and multiparticle collision dynamics.…
The ability of microswimmers to deploy optimal propulsion strategies is of paramount importance for their locomotory performance and survival at low Reynolds numbers. Although for perfectly spherical swimmers minimum dissipation requires a…
Biological systems often involve the self-assembly of basic components into complex and function- ing structures. Artificial systems that mimic such processes can provide a well-controlled setting to explore the principles involved and also…
We study the local controllability properties of 2D and 3D bio-mimetic swimmers employing the change of their geometric shape to propel themselves in an incompressible fluid described by Navier-Stokes equations. It is assumed that swimmers'…
This paper discusses modelling, controllability and gait design for a spherical flexible swimmer. We first present a kinematic model of a low Reynolds number spherical flexible swimming mechanism with periodic surface deformations in the…
Metamaterials are a new generation of advanced materials, exhibiting engineered microstructures that enable customized material properties not found in nature. The dynamics of metamaterials are particularly fascinating, promising the…
This work aims at finding optimal navigation policies for thin, deformable microswimmers that progress in a viscous fluid by propagating a sinusoidal undulation along their slender body. These active filaments are embedded in a prescribed,…
Wavefront shaping (WFS) has emerged as powerful tool to control the propagation of diverse wave phenomena (light, sound, microwaves, ...) in disordered matter for applications including imaging, communication, energy transfer,…
Metasurfaces (MSs) have been utilized to manipulate different properties of electromagnetic waves. By combining local control over the wave amplitude, phase, and polarization into a single tunable structure, a multi-functional and…
Previous particle-based computer simulations have revealed a significantly more pronounced tendency of spontaneous global polar ordering in puller (contractile) microswimmer suspensions than in pusher (extensile) suspensions. We here…
The demonstrations of micro-robotic systems in minimally invasive medicine include an individual or a swarm of microswimmer of various origin, artificial or biohybrid, often with an external computer-controlled electromagnetic field. There…
We develop a minimal hydrodynamic model, without an orientational order parameter, for assemblies of contractile swimmers encapsulated in a droplet of a binary-fluid emulsion. Our model uses two coupled scalar order parameters, $\phi$ and…
We consider a cantilever beam which possesses a possibly non-uniform permanent magnetization, and whose shape is controlled by an applied magnetic field. We model the beam as a plane elastic curve and we suppose that the magnetic field acts…
We suggest several reciprocal swimming mechanisms that lead to a locomotion only in viscoelastic fluids. The first situation is to have a difference between the two amplitudes of the oscillatory arm motion for a three-sphere microswimmer.…
We investigate the collective transport properties of microscopic magnetic rollers that propel close to a surface due to a circularly polarized, rotating magnetic field. The applied field exerts a torque to the particles, which induces a…