Abstract
The spatial organization of active particles or swimmers may depend strongly on the nature of the interaction between the particles and the boundary. Here we use robotic fish of several centimeters dimensions that swim at high enough velocities to reach Reynolds numbers Re of order [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text]. Under confinement in circular arenas filled with a shallow layer of water, these robots swim mostly near the walls and undergo a gradual transition from swirling motion near the boundaries to large cluster formation as the number of particles in the assembly is increased. This transition is highly dependent on the nature of the walls: for solid impermeable walls this transition occurs for small numbers of fish robots. For porous walls this transition is delayed and occurs at larger numbers. The main reason why the two boundaries affect the swimming differently is the alignment of the fish robots at the wall: for the impermeable boundary the fish robots align with a smaller angle to the wall while for the porous case, the fish robots align with a larger angle at the wall allowing the formation of linear clusters. We carry out numerical simulations of model fish in three dimensions to examine how such experimental results can be understood. The interest of these simulations is that they provide a direct and quantitative view of the properties of the flow engendered by the fish like objects. The interaction of this flow with other fish or with the boundaries is the crucial aspect behind the self organization. These simulations reproduce the main features of the behavior of the swimmers such as their swimming near the walls or their angle with respect to the boundary. By using flexible and free to move arenas in experiments and simulations, we show that the assembly of fish robots is capable of creating large deformations as well as induce mobility of the arenas through the self-organization of the robotic fish opening the possibility of making sub-aquatic flexible robots of robots.