Robotic swarms as adaptive active matter

The field of active matter has been closely tied to swarming behaviors from its origins. However, a key feature of natural swarms, feedback regulation of activity in space and time, is usually absent in active matter models. Here, we study a model of active matter with adaptive activity inspired by recent experiments on mechanically coupled robotic swarms. We allow for self-propulsion to be modulated over space and time based on local stresses and strains and study how such self-regulated activity modifies transport and the jamming phase diagram.