1 School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, School of Biomedical Engineering, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China; 2 Postgraduate Training Base Alliance, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China; 3 Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou 325011, China; 4 College of Physics, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, China
Abstract The use of robotic swarms to study the properties of active matter is a common experimental approach. In such studies, robots are often required to possess capabilities in computation, storage, perception, and two-dimensional (2D) movement to execute predefined rules. Under these rules, the swarm can accomplish complex tasks, exhibit rich collective states, or demonstrate intriguing phase transition phenomena. However, this study demonstrates how a swarm of spin robots, which only respond to simple ambient light intensity, can be constructed into a collective system capable of performing practical swarm tasks such as phototactic motion, controllable folding, and object transport through weak coupling interactions between individuals. Furthermore, it is proven that this swarm exhibits strong system fault tolerance. This research aims to demonstrate that, beyond the common design of sophisticated individuals and excellent inter-individual interaction rules, appropriate structural and coupling designs can enable individuals without computational capabilities to generate complex collective behaviors and accomplish diverse swarm tasks through cooperation. This provides a research direction for experimental studies of active matter using robotic systems.
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. T2350007, 12404239, and 12174041) and the Seed Grants from the Wenzhou Institute, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. WIUCASQD2021002).
Corresponding Authors:
Gao Wang, Liyu Liu
E-mail: wanggao@ucas.ac.cn;liu@iphy.ac.cn
Cite this article:
Xingyu Ma(马星宇), Chuyun Wang(汪楚云), Jing Wang(王璟), Huaicheng Chen(陈怀城), Gao Wang(王高), and Liyu Liu(刘雳宇) Simple robot swarm with magnetic coupling connections can collaboratively accomplish collective tasks 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 068701
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