Active matter is composed of large numbers of active "agents", each of which consumes energy in order to move or to exert mechanical forces. Due to the energy consumption, these systems are intrinsically out of thermal equilibrium. This is the wikipedia definition of active matter. I would like to ask the question that, How are these systems different from a canonical ensemble? In canonical ensemble, sytem exchanges energy with a heat bath. And we treat system plus surroundings as a microcanonical ensemble and derive all quantities of interest. I'm not getting the exact motivation behind this formulation. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

Active matter is composed of large numbers of active "agents", each of which consumes energy in order to move or to exert mechanical forces. Due to the energy consumption, these systems are intrinsically out of thermal equilibrium.

This is the Wikipedia's definition of active matter.

I would like to ask the question that, How are these systems different from a canonical ensemble? In canonical ensemble, sytem exchanges energy with a heat bath. And we treat system plus surroundings as a microcanonical ensemble and derive all quantities of interest. I'm not getting the exact motivation behind this formulation. Any help is appreciated. Thank you