Séminaire Igor S.Aronson

Vendredi 07 juillet, 14h00, salle E 4.13 Hybride (jour exceptionnel)

Igor S. Aronson

Active Biomaterials Lab , Penn State

Intelligent Active Matter

Self-propelled particles (active matter) attract growing attention across multiple disciplines. In nature, animals like bats and whales use acoustic signals to communicate and enhance their evolutionary competitiveness. This feature is mostly lacking in the standard active matter models, while it could significantly enhance their functionality and efficiency. We demonstrate that information exchange by acoustic waves between active particles creates a slew of multifunctional structures. In our realization, each agent (swarmer) is equipped with an acoustic emitter and a detector. The swarmers respond to the resulting acoustic field by adjusting their emission frequency and migrating toward the strongest signal. We find self-organized structures with different morphology, including snake-like self-propelled entities, localized aggregates, and spinning vortices. The structures exhibit emergent functionalities, such as targeted aggregation and dispersal upon a signal, boundary guidance, shape memory, and self-regeneration after strong distortion that allows them to penetrate through narrow constrictions. Our results provide insights into the design principles of communicating microrobotic swarms capable of performing complex tasks and responding to external controls.