Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 28: Active Matter IV (joint session DY/BP/CPP)
CPP 28.1: Talk
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 14:00–14:15, ZEU/0160
Automated decision-making by chemical echolocation in active droplets — •Aritra K. Mukhopadhyay1, Ran Niu2, Linhui Fu2, Kai Feng2, Christopher Fujta1, Qiang Zhao2, Jinping Qu2, and Benno Liebchen1 — 1Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. — 2Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Motile microorganisms like bacteria and algae combine self-propulsion, cooperation, and decision-making at the micron scale. Inspired by these biological systems, synthetic microswimmers are emerging as human-made counterparts capable of self-propulsion. Recent breakthroughs provide a platform to integrate additional functionalities, bridging the gap between biology and synthetic systems. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a mechanism that enables synthetic microswimmers, including autophoretic colloids, droplet swimmers, and ion-exchange-driven modular swimmers, to make autonomous navigational decisions. These swimmers generate chemo-hydrodynamic signals that interact with boundaries, producing echoes that encode structural information about the environment. These echoes trigger automatic responses, such as synthetic chemotaxis, allowing swimmers to avoid dead ends and autonomously find paths through complex mazes. We show the mechanism remains robust across different maze geometries, ensuring reliable navigation without external cues. Our findings illustrate how simple physical principles can endow synthetic systems with advanced navigation functionalities.
Keywords: active droplets; chemotaxis; maze solving; microswimmers