| Abstract: |
| The classical problem of optimal mass transport has been explored for over two centuries with deep connections to economics, hydrodynamics, and machine learning. But much less is known about how to optimally transport physical materials, such as active fluids, that obey complex spatiotemporal and autonomous dynamics. Using minimal models to describe the fluid dynamics of active materials such as bacterial drops or motile cells, I will describe an optimal control framework for manipulating internal stresses in the fluid to transport active drops with the least amount of energy dissipated. By combining numerical solutions and analytical insight, I will highlight simple principles and characteristic trade-offs that govern the optimal policies, suggesting general strategies for optimal transportation in a wide variety of synthetic and biological active systems. Time permitting, I will also discuss more recent work on extending some of these ideas to more complex situations such as the transport of localized excitations in active fluids. |
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