Various aspects of collective motion

Budhaditya Banerjee

PHD Advisor: Rumi De

25/07/2022
Collective motion of self propelled particles

Dynamical behavior emergent in a group of active self propelled particles ,

depending on nearest neighbor coordination is termed collective motion.

Bird flocking
Schooling of Fish (starlings)
 Vicsek Model
The Vicsek model implements
Velocity alignment between
Particles within a certain
interaction Radius, along with
the presence of Random
fluctuations.

Velocity alignment rule-

Find neighbors within radius of interaction
Try to align along average velocity , in presence of noise.
Off lattice model with periodic boundary conditions.

Vicsek et al. (1995).. Physical review letters, 75(6), 1226.

 Vicsek Microscopic Dynamics

Noise : 2.0 ; N=300; L= 7.0 Noise : 0.1 ; N=300; L= 25.0

High density , High noise Low density low noise

Noise : 0.1 ; N=300; L= 5.0

High density, Low noise
Vicsek Model: Microscopic dynamics
(a) Higher density higher noise (b) Lower density lower noise

(c) Higher density higher noise (d) Higher density lower noise

(a) t=0 ,L=7 ,n=2.0, N=300 (b)L=25 ,n=0.1

(c)L=7 ,n=2.0 (d)L=5 ,n=0.1
 Order Parameter : Vicsek Model
Average value of normalized velocity
Order parameter

noise

Order parameter vs noise amplitude ( N=100;L=3.1)

Order Parameter: Discussions

Final order parameter

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic noise (Nature of Phase transition)

 Collective motion in Heterogenous Media
Motivation

E-Coli Swarming
Credits: University of Wisconsin

Most of studies have been performed on collective motion in homogenous medium.

 Realistic modeling requires heterogeneous environment.

Collective motion in cellular environment , bacterial swarming, movement of artificial

nanorobots all take place in inhomogenous complex environment

High disorder has been found to destroy collective motion phase .

 Trapping of flocking particles by disordered substrate has been observed.

 Simple modelling of heterogenous medium by N static circular obtstacles

with effective intercation radius R.

Chepizko et al. (2013).. Physical review letters, 75(6), 1226

Collective motion in presence of obstacles
Dynamical Equations for Obstacle Avoidance

Soft repulsion depends on Euclidean

distance between obstacle centre
and point particle

Particles experience soft repulsion when they enter the domain of the obstacle

.
 Microscopic dynamics in presence of obstacles

Noise : 0.1 Noise 0.5

10X10 Lattice:
Lane Formation
Observed at
Low noise strength

Noise 1.5
Order Parameter Effect of obstacle area on collective motion

Order parameter
vs time
One obstacle

Thirty obstacles

Time
Order Parameter Order Parameter in presence of Obstacles

Noise

Order parameter vs noise : N=400, No=0 ,5 and 20, Lattice=10X10

Sharper fall of order parameter for higher obstacle number
 Future Scope and ideas

 Coarse grained modelling of interacting active particles in a complex environment

in the continuum limit , investigation of essential non-equilibrium features.

 Investigate the effects of geometry , number and motility of obstacles on collective

motion in thermodynamic limit.

 Different models of obstacle-particle interaction , soft repulsion ;hard exclusion

whether they lead to noticeable differences of phase transition.

 Metric vs Topological interaction between coordinating particles .

 Inclusion of acceleration alignments on top of velocity alignment between flocks.

 Investigate the effect of inertial term when overdamped limit is not applicable .

.
 Motility is the Hallmark of Life.

●
Traffic occurs in all scales of biological systems- from molecular motors taking part in
inter-cellular transport to multicellular organisms like social insect colonies.

●
Modelling biological traffic is a multidisciplinary multi-faceted endeavour.

●
Continuum modelling by capturing time evolution of the density distribution through
partial differential equations in the Coarse-grained hydrodynamic limit is one approach .

●
The other approach is by implementation of update-rules in discrete time steps in the
spirit of cellular automata; primarily simulation.

●
We will adopt the second approach to emulate the Tandem-walk in Indian ant colony
relocation- in absence of chemical gradients and with established leader-follower
hierarchy.
 Tandem Walk::Motivation
In collaboration with Manish Pathak and Prof. Sumana Annaigiri
 Tandem Running : Social learning Phenomenon

 Leader – Follower hierarchy

 Checking for transportation time , depending on bridge width

 Variable number of leaders take part in reallocation

 Jamming transition observed

Jamming transition in Indian ant colony

during colony relocation
 Cellular Automata Model:Tandem Walk

 Rule based modelling :: Biased random walk on lattice.

 Hop to nearest neighbours probabilisticaly.

 Ants at boundary have significantly lower choices than those at the bulk

 Transport time increases when bridge width is decreased . (Manipulation)

 Resolution of jam – Midway reorientation .

 Modelling of Control scenario::

●
Define a 77X5 lattice.
●
Define two types of particles – leaders and followers.
●
Leaders can hop to nearest vacant sites-
●
Probabilistically choose one out of five sites
by calling random number; but never hops
backwards.
●
Followers follow the leader due to
tandem run- till they are relocated to
new nest from old nest.
 Modelling of Control scenario:: contnd

●
Once position of leaders reach new
nest(x_pos=77),leaders return by same mechanism
towards old nest,with increased speed to continue
tandem run.
●
Probability of emergence of new leader from amongst the
deposited followers- control parameter that can be
varied.
●
Recruitment of new leaders might be stopped after
certain percentage of followers have been re-allocated.
 Modelling of Control scenario:: contnd

●
Important points to take note while modelling-
●
The number and location of vacant sites for each
leader(and corresponding follower) is a variable
at each time step; keeping track of them and
choosing one of them through random number
call can be bit tricky and computationally
expensive.
●
The number of sites
Some results : Distribution of Tandem runs

Fraction of leaders
Percentage of tandem runs
Some results : Distribution of Tandem runs
 Simulations : Tandem Walk

Lattice: ( 20 X3)
Initial number of leaders: 3
Probability of leader variant : 0.05
Time snaps : 1-200; 1000-1200; 1900-2000
 Simulations : Jamming graphs
X position

Time
X position of leaders vs time
 Simulations : Jamming graphs
Y position of leader vs time
Y position

Time
 Future Directions :: Scope and Ideas

Investigate effects of probability of emerging leader , bridge thickness

and initial number of leaders on transportation time .

Compare the total relocation time for control and manipulation scenarios
via simulation , match with experimental results .

 Effect of probabilistic Mid- Way Reorientation of returning leaders in

resolving the jam .

 Effect of probabilistic Mid- Way Reorientation of returning leaders in

resolving the jam .

How the introduction of intra-species signaling( chemical or acoustical)

change the rate of transportation .

Different approach of modeling , using modified Master Equations or

Brownian Bridge to simulate ant transportation
THANK YOU