Plastic deformation of crystalline materials with isotropic particle attractions proceeds by the creation and migration of dislocations under the influence of external forces. If dislocations are produced and migrated under the action of local forces, then material shape change can occur without the application of surface forces. We investigate how particles with variable diameters can be embedded in colloidal monolayers to produce dislocations on demand. We find in simulation that when embedded clusters of variable diameter particles are taken through multiple cycles of swelling and shrinking, large cumulative plastic slip is produced by the creation and biased motion of dislocation pairs in the solid for embedded clusters of particular geometries. In this way, dislocations emitted by these clusters (biased “dislocation emitters”) can be used to reshape colloidal matter. Our results are also applicable to larger-scale swarms of robotic particles that organize into dense ordered two-dimensional (2D) arrangements. We conclude with a discussion of how dislocations fulfill for colloids the role sought by “metamodules” in lattice robotics research and show how successive applications of shear as a unit operation can produce shape change through slicing and swirling.

具有各向同性粒子吸引力的晶体材料的塑性变形是在外力的影响下通过位错的产生和迁移进行的。如果位错在局部力的作用下产生和迁移，则材料形状变化可以在不施加表面力的情况下发生。我们研究了如何将具有可变直径的粒子嵌入胶体单分子层中以按需产生位错。我们在模拟中发现，当嵌入的可变直径粒子簇经过多次膨胀和收缩循环时，对于特定几何形状的嵌入簇，固体中位错对的产生和偏置运动会产生大的累积塑性滑移。这样，这些簇发射的位错（偏向的“位错发射器”）可用于重塑胶体物质。我们的结果也适用于组织成密集有序二维（2D）排列的更大规模的机器人粒子群。我们最后讨论了位错如何为胶体实现“元模块”在晶格机器人研究中所寻求的作用，并展示剪切作为一个单元操作的连续应用如何通过切片和旋转产生形状变化。