Emergence of Stigmergic Transport in Granular Environments

Abstract

We show that stigmergic path formation emerges in a deformable environment through the interplay between environmental memory and geometrical crowding. Using experiments with robotic random walkers together with a minimal stochastic model, we demonstrate the onset of persistent self-reinforced transport pathways above a critical packing fraction $\phi_c$, where environmental memory enhances walker mobility. As the jamming transition $\phi_J$ is approached, increasing crowding progressively suppresses this transport enhancement despite the persistence of environmental memory. The resulting non-monotonic behavior reveals an optimal transport regime well below jamming. More generally, our work establishes how active agents can collectively build transport networks through purely mechanical interactions with a deformable substrate.