Neuroevolution of decentralized decision-making in N-bead swimmers leads to scalable and robust collective locomotion
- Author(s)
- Benedikt Hartl, Michael Levin, Andreas Zöttl
- Abstract
Many microorganisms swim by performing larger non-reciprocal shape deformations that are initiated locally by molecular motors. However, it remains unclear how decentralized shape control determines the movement of the entire organism. Here, we investigate how efficient locomotion emerges from coordinated yet simple and decentralized decision-making of the body parts using neuroevolution techniques. Our approach allows us to investigate optimal locomotion policies for increasingly large microswimmer bodies, with emerging long-wavelength body shape deformations corresponding to surprisingly efficient swimming gaits. The obtained decentralized policies are robust and tolerant concerning morphological changes or defects and can be applied to artificial microswimmers for cargo transport or drug delivery applications without further optimization “out of the box”. Our work is of relevance to understanding and developing robust navigation strategies of biological and artificial microswimmers and, in a broader context, for understanding emergent levels of individuality and the role of collective intelligence in Artificial Life.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- Technische Universität Wien, Tufts University, Harvard University
- Journal
- Communications Physics
- Volume
- 8
- No. of pages
- 14
- ISSN
- 2399-3650
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.09438
- Publication date
- 05-2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106006 Biophysics, 103015 Condensed matter, 103043 Computational physics
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/91a5c152-7c48-4358-adbf-97e7e493d341