Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients
Friction, the resistive force between two surfaces sliding past each other, is at the core of a wide diversity of locomotion schemes. While such schemes are well described for homogeneous environments, locomotion based on friction in inhomogeneous environments has not received much attention. Here w...
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| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91151 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5554-1283 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3771-2349 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1724-0241 |
| _version_ | 1826195157652865024 |
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| author | Steimel, Joshua P. Alexander-Katz, Alfredo Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Steimel, Joshua P. Alexander-Katz, Alfredo Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis |
| author_sort | Steimel, Joshua P. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Friction, the resistive force between two surfaces sliding past each other, is at the core of a wide diversity of locomotion schemes. While such schemes are well described for homogeneous environments, locomotion based on friction in inhomogeneous environments has not received much attention. Here we introduce and demonstrate the concept of tribotaxis, a motion that is guided by gradients in the friction coefficient. Our system is composed of microwalkers that undergo an effective frictional interaction with biological receptors on the substrate, which is regulated by the density of such receptors. When actuated stochastically, microwalkers migrate to regions of higher friction, much like a chemotactic cell migrates to regions of higher chemoattractant concentration. Simulations and theory based on biased random walks are in excellent agreement with experiments. We foresee important implications for tribotaxis in artificial and natural locomotion in biological environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:08:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/91151 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:08:24Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/911512022-09-30T19:07:17Z Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients Steimel, Joshua P. Alexander-Katz, Alfredo Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Steimel, Joshua P. Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis Alexander-Katz, Alfredo Friction, the resistive force between two surfaces sliding past each other, is at the core of a wide diversity of locomotion schemes. While such schemes are well described for homogeneous environments, locomotion based on friction in inhomogeneous environments has not received much attention. Here we introduce and demonstrate the concept of tribotaxis, a motion that is guided by gradients in the friction coefficient. Our system is composed of microwalkers that undergo an effective frictional interaction with biological receptors on the substrate, which is regulated by the density of such receptors. When actuated stochastically, microwalkers migrate to regions of higher friction, much like a chemotactic cell migrates to regions of higher chemoattractant concentration. Simulations and theory based on biased random walks are in excellent agreement with experiments. We foresee important implications for tribotaxis in artificial and natural locomotion in biological environments. MIT Energy Initiative (BP Fellowship) United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Award ER46919) 2014-10-23T16:18:33Z 2014-10-23T16:18:33Z 2014-10 2014-04 2014-10-22T22:00:03Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 1079-7114 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91151 Steimel, Joshua P., Juan L. Aragones, and Alfredo, Alexander-Katz. "Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients." Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 178101 (October 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5554-1283 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3771-2349 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1724-0241 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.178101 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Steimel, Joshua P. Alexander-Katz, Alfredo Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title | Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title_full | Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title_fullStr | Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title_full_unstemmed | Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title_short | Artificial Tribotactic Microscopic Walkers: Walking Based on Friction Gradients |
| title_sort | artificial tribotactic microscopic walkers walking based on friction gradients |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91151 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5554-1283 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3771-2349 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1724-0241 |
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