Swarming coupled oscillators exhibit spatial and temporal self-organization; the mobile agents move as a function of their oscillatory phase interactions and their phase interactions behave as a function of their relative motions. The dual coupling between spatial motion and phase behavior enables this abstract mathematical framework to unleash a diverse range of static and dynamic collective behaviors that mimic natural and artificial swarming behaviors, aid in the characterization of microrobot collective systems, and are helping us develop more advanced microrobot swarms. (As depicted above, spatial aggregation as a function of internal agent phase is enabled by a tunable spatial-phase coupling parameter, J, and synchronization is enabled by a tunable phase coupling parameter, K.)
Paper: Steven Ceron, Kevin O’Keeffe, and Kirstin Petersen, “Diverse Behaviors of Non-Uniform Chiral and Non-Chiral Swarmalators”, Nature Communications, 2023.
Abstract: We study the emergent behaviors of a population of swarming coupled oscillators, dubbed swarmalators. Previous work considered the simplest, idealized case: identical swarmalators with global coupling. Here we expand this work by adding more realistic features: local coupling, non-identical natural frequencies, and chirality. This more realistic model generates a variety of new behaviors including lattices of vortices, beating clusters, and interacting phase waves. Similar behaviors are found across natural and artificial micro-scale collective systems, including social slime mold, spermatozoa vortex arrays, and Quincke rollers. Our results indicate a wide range of future use cases, both to aid characterization and understanding of natural swarms, and to design complex interactions in collective systems from soft and active matter to micro-robotics.
Abstract: We study the emergent behaviors of a population of swarming coupled oscillators, dubbed swarmalators. Previous work considered the simplest, idealized case: identical swarmalators with global coupling. Here we expand this work by adding more realistic features: local coupling, non-identical natural frequencies, and chirality. This more realistic model generates a variety of new behaviors including lattices of vortices, beating clusters, and interacting phase waves. Similar behaviors are found across natural and artificial micro-scale collective systems, including social slime mold, spermatozoa vortex arrays, and Quincke rollers. Our results indicate a wide range of future use cases, both to aid characterization and understanding of natural swarms, and to design complex interactions in collective systems from soft and active matter to micro-robotics.
Paper: Kevin O’Keeffe, Steven Ceron, and Kirstin Petersen, “Collective behavior of swarmalators on a ring”, Physical Review E, 105, 014211 (2022)
Abstract: We study the collective behavior of swarmalators, generalizations of phase oscillators that both sync and swarm, confined to move on a 1D ring. This simple model captures the essence of movement in 2D or 3D but has the benefit of being solvable: most of the collective states and their bifurcations can be specified exactly. The model also captures the behavior of real-world swarmalators which swarm in quasi-1D rings such as bordertaxic vinegar eels and sperm.
Abstract: We study the collective behavior of swarmalators, generalizations of phase oscillators that both sync and swarm, confined to move on a 1D ring. This simple model captures the essence of movement in 2D or 3D but has the benefit of being solvable: most of the collective states and their bifurcations can be specified exactly. The model also captures the behavior of real-world swarmalators which swarm in quasi-1D rings such as bordertaxic vinegar eels and sperm.
More in the near future