the interplay between the tunnelling dynamics and the onsite interactions [@Greiner; @Jordens:08]. In one dimensional lattices and for strong repulsive interactions it has been shown that the phases of a system are entirely controlled by the particle filling statistics [@Zwerger2003; @Haller2010; @Lelas2012; @Cartarius2015; @Hoogerland2016]. In this case, a commensurate particle density leads to an integer filling of each lattice site and thus realises an insulating *pinned* phase where dynamics is suppressed due to vanishing long range coherence. For incommensurate particle densities each lattice site has a non-integer filling which has the effect of creating delocalised modes which can be considered as defects [@Astrakharchik2016; @Astrakharchik2017]. These defects promote dynamics as they preserve a degree of coherence and allow the system to attain superfluid-like properties. Quantum phase transitions in these systems can be probed by switching the control parameter across a critical point [@Silva2008; @Karrasch2013; @Campbell2016; @Heyl2017; @Fogarty2017; @Sengstock2017]. Additionally, the transport properties of such systems can be linked to classical models of friction which describe stick-slip motion between two surfaces [@Peyrard1982; @Braun2013; @Mandelli2013; @Fogarty2015; @Fogarty2016], an effect which has been recently observed [@Vladan2016; @Vladan2017; @Kont2018]. In fact, precise control of the competing length scales between the two surfaces can be used 