Sonar Tracking of Moving Targets by Echolocating Bats

通过回声定位蝙蝠对移动目标进行声纳跟踪

• 批准号: 8720192
• 负责人: Roderick Suthers
• 金额: $ 20.72万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-02-01 至 1992-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8720192&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Sonar; Tracking; Moving; Targets; Echolocating

Flying bats use sonar (echolocation) to track and intercept moving prey. A particularly interesting problem is presented in the case of fish-eating bats because the prey can only be tracked by sonar when at the surface of the water; at other times it is "invisible" to sonar. This is a project in which the behavior of a fish-eating bat will be investigated as it tracks and intercepts a target that is under the control of the experimenter. The target's velocity, acceleration and path of movement will be varied, as will the amount of time it spends at the water surface. The experimenter will measure the flight path and head aim of the bat, where it dips its feet in attempting to capture prey that has disappeared beneath the surface, and its ability to resolve differences in velocity of targets moving across its path. The study will also address the role of learning in the bat's development of tracking behavior. The project is important for a number of reasons. The general issue of how animals use sonar for obtaining information and how they process that information to intercept moving and periodically disappearing targets is significant to understanding basic aspects of animal behavior, particularly of bats and marine mammals. It also offers the possibility of suggesting improvements in man-made sonar tracking devices.

飞行蝙蝠使用声纳(回声定位)来跟踪和拦截移动的猎物。在食鱼蝙蝠的情况下，出现了一个特别有趣的问题，因为只有在水面上的时候，声纳才能追踪到猎物；在其他时候，声纳是“看不见的”。这是一个项目，在这个项目中，吃鱼蝙蝠的行为将被调查，因为它跟踪和拦截在实验者控制下的目标。目标的速度、加速度和移动路径将会改变，它在水面上停留的时间也会改变。实验者将测量蝙蝠的飞行路线和头部目标，它在试图捕捉消失在水面下的猎物时探出双脚，以及它解决穿过其路径的目标速度差异的能力。这项研究还将探讨学习在蝙蝠跟踪行为发展中的作用。该项目之所以重要，原因有很多。动物如何使用声纳获取信息，以及它们如何处理这些信息以拦截运动和周期性消失的目标，这一总体问题对于了解动物行为的基本方面，特别是蝙蝠和海洋哺乳动物的行为具有重要意义。它还提供了改进人造声纳跟踪设备的建议的可能性。