The influence of obstacles on collective motion of self-propelled objects

TL;DR

This study explores how obstacles arranged in a lattice affect the collective motion of self-propelled objects, revealing a transition from superdiffusive to diffusive behavior as obstacle size increases.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Vicsek model with circular obstacles arranged in a lattice, demonstrating how obstacle size influences collective motion patterns.

Findings

Small obstacles lead to large, unidirectional clusters.

Large obstacles cause small, randomly moving clusters.

Obstacle radius controls the transition from superdiffusive to diffusive motion.

Abstract

We investigate the influence of obstacles on the collective motion of self propelled objects in the framework of the Vicsek model. The obstacles are arranged in a square lattice and have circular shape. We show that by increasing the radius of the obstacles the collective motion of the self propelled object can be altered from super diffusive to diffusive. For obstacles with small radius, the system is composed of large clusters moving in one direction, for larger radius, the system is composed of small clusters moving randomly in different directions.