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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 29: Active Matter 5 - organized by Carsten Beta (Potsdam), Andreas Menzel (Magdeburg) and Holger Stark (Berlin) (joint session DY/BP)

BP 29.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 15:30–15:50, DYb

Feedback Control of Multiple Active Microswimmers — •Alexander Fischer¹, Giovanni Volpe², and Frank Cichos¹ — ¹Peter Debye Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Universität Leipzig — ²Physics Department, Gothenburg University

Sensing and reacting to signals is a fundamental component of life. The exchange of information is used to organize ensembles of active objects into collective states that appear as flocks, swarms or even tissue. Here we explore the emergent collective behavior as a result of an information exchange between synthetic microswimmers by computer-controlled feedback processes. We have created a setup where multiple active microswimmers can respond to local signals in space or their distance to other microswimmers [1]. Our system consists of symmetric self-thermophoretic swimmers that are propelled by light-to-heat conversion allowing us to implement almost arbitrary control of propulsion speed and direction. Using this system, we study in particular the delayed response of the swimmers to environmental signals, where the swimmers remember previous information on a signaling landscape or infers future signals from experience. We find that this type of delayed response is modifying the collective behavior enhancing local swimmer densities depending on delay time, extrapolation or memory and the rotational diffusion time. Our data suggest the existence of optimal delays for the given landscapes.

[1] U. Khadka, V. Holubec, H. Yang, F. Cichos, Nat. Commun. 9, 3864 (2018)