Flowrate behavior and clustering of self-driven robots in a channel

Abstract

In this paper, the collective motion of self-driven robots is studied experimentally and theoretically. In the channel, the flowrate of robots increases with the density linearly, even if the density of the robots tends to 1.0. There is no abrupt drop in the flowrate, similar to the collective motion of ants. We find that the robots will adjust their velocities by a serial of tiny collisions. The speed-adjustment will affect both robots involved in the collision, and will help to maintain a nearly uniform velocity for the robots. As a result, the flowrate drop will disappear. In the motion, the robots neither gather together nor scatter completely. Instead, they form some clusters to move together. These clusters are not stable during the moving process, but their sizes follow a power-law-alike distribution. We propose a theoretical model to simulate this collective motion process, which can reproduce these behaviors well. Analytic results about the flowrate behavior are also consistent with experiments.

Characterization and control of a bottleneck-induced traffic-jam transition for self-propelled particles in a track

“…Approaching N = 10, the velocity distribution is slightly shifted to a lower value, typically 30 cm s −1 , which corresponds to the velocity of the slowest particles in the track. This velocity reduction is consistent with the formation of moving clusters [22] with the slowest particles ahead. The velocity distribution becomes bimodal in the coexistence region 9 N 18, and the mode related to the particles in the jam has a typical velocity of 5 cm s −1 .…”

“…For noncontact interactions mediated by a diffusing surfactant [20] or light sensing [21], the traffic flow limitation is associated with the saturation of the track. Self-propelled particles with contact interactions have been used to explore either a free regime of traffic [22] or the congested regime obtained with particles in a hopperlike constriction [23].…”