Phototactic Supersmarticles

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ensembles of simple, minimally programmed smart particles can collectively achieve directed movement toward or away from light, mimicking biological phototaxis through chaotic interactions and asymmetry.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of phototactic supersmarticles, combining experimental and theoretical models to show collective phototactic behavior in minimal robotic systems.

Findings

Supersmarticles exhibit directed phototactic movement.

Chaotic interactions cause approximate Brownian motion.

Asymmetry in smarticle activity biases supersmarticle motion.

Abstract

Smarticles, or smart active particles, are small robots equipped with only basic movement and sensing abilities that are incapable of rotating or displacing individually. We study the ensemble behavior of smarticles, i.e., the behavior a collective of these very simple computational elements can achieve, and how such behavior can be implemented using minimal programming. We show that an ensemble of smarticles constrained to remain close to one another (which we call a supersmarticle), achieves directed locomotion toward or away from a light source, a phenomenon known as phototaxing. We present experimental and theoretical models of phototactic supersmarticles that collectively move with a directed displacement in response to light. The motion of the supersmarticle is approximately Brownian, and is a result of chaotic interactions among smarticles. The system can be directed by introducing asymmetries among the individual smarticle's behavior, in our case by varying activity levels in response to light, resulting in supersmarticle biased motion.