A Low-Cost Platform for Studying Low-dimensional Active Matter

While it’s known that simple interactions between active constituents reproduces collective phenomena such as flocking and schooling, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of emergent collective behaviors in active matter. Here, we built a model system for studying emergent collective behaviors from customizable, low-cost bristle-bots. Our model system is a quasi-one-dimensional system of bristle-bots confined to a circular track, interacting only with the bot in front or behind. Examples of low dimensional active systems include ants moving in a line, motor proteins walking on microtubule filaments, and traffic jams. We find that bristle-bots form cooperative dynamic clusters, despite their innate heterogeneities. Our results demonstrate how quasi-one-dimensional interactions between heterogeneous active constituents can give rise to emergent collective behaviors.