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Area Engineering
Steering and control of micro-swimmers: governing collective motion
keywords CONTROL, HYDRODYNAMIC INTERACTION, LOW REYNOLDS NUMBER HYDRODYNAMICS, MICRO-SWIMMERS, OPTIMISATION
Reference persons MARCO MORANDOTTI, MARTA ZOPPELLO
Research Groups Analisi non lineare e calcolo delle variazioni, Modelli e metodi della Fisica Matematica
Thesis type APPLIED, RESEARCH
Description A key challenge in the modelling of micro-swimmers is controlling them, that is, being able to devise a sequence of shape changes that allows them to displace between two given points. Control of micro-swimmers has the far-reaching potential of designing artificial micro-robots that can be steered to perform precision tasks, including targeted drug delivery and synchronous motion of a cohort of devices. In both situations, it is amenable to directly act on a small number of them, which, in turn, drive the motion of all the others.
The thesis can be developed by focusing on one or more of the following directions:
1) study of the control problem for a single, flagellar swimmer, made up of N joint units (the N-link swimmer) in the three-dimensional space;
2) study of a system made of two interacting scallops (two 2-link swimmers) and how their coordinated motion produces a non-zero net displacement;
3) study of a system of many interacting agents in which a few of them control the motion of all the others: the simplest case is that of many interacting spheres, in which the active ones (whose motion can be prescribed) determine the motion of the others.
Required skills Mathematical analysis, continuum mechanics, linear algebra, equations of mathematical physics, differential geometry
Deadline 25/02/2025
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