External control strategies for self-propelled particles: optimizing navigational efficiency in the presence of limited resources

TL;DR

This study compares various control strategies for self-propelled particles to optimize navigation efficiency towards a target, considering limited resources and different performance metrics through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic analysis of multiple navigation strategies for active particles, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses under resource constraints.

Findings

Different strategies excel under different conditions.

No single strategy outperforms others in all metrics.

Strategy effectiveness depends on specific optimization goals.

Abstract

We experimentally and numerically study the dependence of different navigation strategies regarding the effectivity of an active particle to reach a predefined target area. As the only control parameter, we vary the particle's propulsion velocity depending on its position and orientation relative to the target site. By introducing different figures of merit, e.g. the time to target or the total consumed propulsion energy, we are able to quantify and compare the efficiency of different strategies. Our results suggest, that each strategy to navigate towards a target, has its strengths and weaknesses and none of them outperforms the other in all regards. Accordingly, the choice of an ideal navigation strategy will strongly depend on the specific conditions and the figure of merit which should be optimized.