Related papers: Gliders in shape-changing active matter
The drag of an elliptic intruder in a two-dimensional granular environment is numerically studied. The movement parallel to the major axis of the intruder is found to be unstable. The drag law is given by the sum of the yield force and the…
We study the dynamics of classical particles in different classes of spatially extended self-similar systems, consisting of (i) a self-similar Lorentz billiard channel, (ii) a self-similar graph, and (iii) a master equation. In all three…
In the formation control problem for autonomous robots a distributed control law steers the robots to the desired target formation. A local stability result of the target formation can be derived by methods of linearization and center…
Soft, repulsive run-and-tumble particles display emergent effective interactions as they appear to stick to each other in spite of the absence of attractive forces. This effective attraction emerges at strong enough repulsion and large…
Dense suspensions of self-propelled rod-like particles exhibit a fascinating variety of non-equilibrium phenomena. By means of computer simulations of a minimal model for rigid self-propelled colloidal rods with variable shape we explore…
The flow of granular material in a rotating cylinder was simulated by molecular dynamics in two dimensions using spherical as well as nonspherical grains. At very low but constant angular velocity we found that the flow varies irregularly…
We use a computational model to investigate the emergence of interaction forces between pairs of intruders in a horizontally vibrated granular fluid. The time evolution of a pair of particles shows a maximum of the likelihood to find the…
We introduce a model system of stochastic entities, called 'rowers' which include some essentialities of the behavior of real cilia. We introduce and discuss the problem of symmetry breaking for these objects and its connection with the…
A geometric view of the possible outcomes of elastic collisions of two massive bodies is developed that integrates laboratory, center of mass, and relative body frames in a single diagram. From these diagrams all the scattering properties…
The range of existence and the properties of two essentially different chaotic attractors found in a model of nonlinear convection-driven dynamos in rotating spherical shells are investigated. A hysteretic transition between these…
Cooperative transport is a striking phenomenon where multiple agents join forces to transit a payload too heavy for the individual. While social animals such as ants are routinely observed to coordinate transport at scale, reproducing the…
We investigate emergence of spontaneous filtering of Brownian motion in higher dimensional space by many--body structures of symmetry broken dimer. Interacting dimer form structures which eventually restrict rotational degrees of freedom of…
We study gravitational clustering of mass points in three dimensions with random initial positions and periodic boundary conditions (no expansion) by numerical simulations. Correlation properties are well defined in the system and a sort of…
Discrete simulation methods are efficient tools to investigate the complex behaviors of complex fluids made of either dry granular materials or dilute suspensions. By contrast, materials made of soft and/or concentrated units (emulsions,…
We define a random walk of a particle in $\mathbb{R}^3$ where the space is rotating. The particle is not glued to the space and will collide with it at random times, resulting in changes in its velocity and direction. After many collisions,…
The dynamical response of a tethered semiflexible polymer with self-attractive interactions and subjected to an external force field is numerically investigated by varying stiffness and self-interaction strength. The chain is confined in…
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 investigate the dynamics of an intruder pulled by a constant force in a dense two-dimensional granular fluid by means of event-driven molecular dynamics simulations. In a first step, we show how a propagating momentum front develops and…
We investigate the sensorimotor loop of simple robots simulated within the LPZRobots environment from the point of view of dynamical systems theory. For a robot with a cylindrical shaped body and an actuator controlled by a single…
Recent research on mobile robots has focused on increasing their adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments using soft materials and structures. However, the determination of key design parameters and control over these…