Related papers: Surfing on turbulence: a strategy for planktonic n…
We present an experimental study of capillary surfers, a new fluid-mediated active system that bridges the gap between dissipation- and inertia-dominated regimes. Surfers are wave-driven particles that self-propel and interact on a fluid…
Microswimmer suspensions self-organize into complex spatio-temporal flow patterns, including vortex lattices and mesoscale turbulence. Here we explore the consequences for the motion of passive tracers, based on a continuum model for the…
Aerial operation in turbulent environments is a challenging problem due to the chaotic behavior of the flow. This problem is made even more complex when a team of aerial robots is trying to achieve coordinated motion in turbulent wind…
We apply a reinforcement learning algorithm to show how smart particles can learn approximately optimal strategies to navigate in complex flows. In this paper we consider microswimmers in a paradigmatic three-dimensional case given by a…
On their roller coaster ride through turbulence, tracer particles sample the fluctuations of the underlying fields in space and time. Quantitatively relating particle and field statistics remains a fundamental challenge in a large variety…
Microorganisms often encounter strong confinement and complex hydrodynamic flows while navigating their habitats. Combining finite-element methods and stochastic simulations, we study the interplay of active transport and heterogeneous…
Finding an optimum strategy to reach a certain destination by swimming in a background flow is an interesting question which leads to non-trivial results and swimming paths. Here we consider different strategies for various types of surface…
The motility skills of phytoplankton have evolved and persisted over millions of years, primarily in response to factors such as nutrient and light availability, temperature and viscosity gradients, turbulence, and predation pressure.…
Microswimmers in turbulent flows often navigate complex, heterogeneous, and obstacle-rich environments, where they exhibit intricate behaviors such as trapping at and escape from obstacles. We generalize recent $\mathcal{Q}-$learning…
Pursuing a drifting target in a turbulent flow is an extremely difficult task whenever the searcher has limited propulsion and maneuvering capabilities. Even in the case when the relative distance between pursuer and target stays below the…
Organisms often swim through density stratified fluids. In this Letter, we investigate the dynamics of small active particles swimming in density gradients and report theoretical evidence of taxis as a result of density stratification…
Fish schooling is often modeled with self-propelled particles subject to phenomenological behavioral rules. Although fish are known to sense and exploit flow features, these models usually neglect hydrodynamics. Here, we propose a novel…
In certain biological contexts, such as the plumage patterns of birds and stripes on certain species of fishes, pattern formation takes place behind a so-called "wave of competency". Currently, the effects of a wave of competency on the…
Organisms often grow, migrate and compete in liquid environments, as well as on solid surfaces. However, relatively little is known about what happens when competing species are mixed and compressed by fluid turbulence. In these lectures we…
We experimentally study the emergence of collective bacterial swimming, a phenomenon often referred to as bacterial turbulence. A phase diagram of the flow of 3D E. coli suspensions spanned by bacterial concentration, the swimming speed of…
As the length scales of the smallest technology continue to advance beyond the micron scale it becomes increasingly important to equip robotic components with the means for intelligent and autonomous decision making with limited…
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…
One approach to quantifying biological diversity consists of characterizing the statistical distribution of specific properties of a taxonomic group or habitat. Microorganisms living in fluid environments, and for whom motility is key,…
The character of turbulence depends on where it develops. Turbulence near boundaries, for instance, is different than in a free stream. To elucidate the differences between flows, it is instructive to vary the structure of turbulence…
We investigate the effect of cooperative interactions in an ensemble of microorganisms, modelled as self-propelled disk-like and rod-like particles, in a three-dimensional turbulent flow to show flocking as an emergent phenomenon. Building…