Physical gliders produced from smarticle clouds

Active matter studies have mainly considered systems in which agents are individually motile and maintain a fixed shape. In contrast our smarticle robots which are planar 3-link, 2-motor/ revolute joint robots (each link ~3 cm long) are unable to self-propel but can self-deform via motor actuation. Here we show in laboratory experiment and numerical simulation that unconfined “clouds” of smarticles spontaneously generate self-organized bound pairs capable of ballistic motion over multiple body-lengths with lifetimes of hundreds of gait periods. The gliders occur in two main configurations which are described by their relative configurations during the motion. We reproduce these gliders in numerical simulation and study their dynamics in detail. One glider configuration is extremely robust to initial conditions and exhibits a clear basin of attraction, while the other configuration is much more selective. In the absence of added noise, both glider types persist indefinitely in simulations, all the while stochastically shifting between internal modes of joint propulsion. In the context of a confined ensemble, multi-bot chains emerge, consisting of glider-like bonds.