SurferBot: a wave-propelled aquatic vibrobot.

Nature has evolved a vast array of strategies for propulsion at the air-fluid interface. Inspired by a survival mechanism initiated by the honeybee () trapped on the surface of water, we here present the: a centimeter-scale vibrating robotic device that self-propels on a fluid surface using analogous hydrodynamic mechanisms as the stricken honeybee. This low-cost and easily assembled device is capable of rectilinear motion thanks to forces arising from a wave-generated, unbalanced momentum flux, achieving speeds on the order of centimeters per second.

Discrete and periodic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation for a hydrodynamic active lattice.

A discrete and periodic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, coupled to a mean equation, is systematically derived from a driven and dissipative lattice oscillator model, close to the onset of a supercritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation. The oscillator model is inspired by recent experiments exploring active vibrations of quasi-one-dimensional lattices of self-propelled millimetric droplets bouncing on a vertically vibrating fluid bath. Our systematic derivation provides a direct link between the constitutive properties of the lattice system and the coefficients of the resultant amplitude equations, paving the way to compare the emergent nonlinear dynamics-namely, the onset and formation of discrete dark solitons, breathers, and traveling waves-against experiments.