Experimental and Computational Investigation of Closed Loop Flight Control in the Hawkmoth Manduca Sexta

天蛾天蛾闭环飞行控制的实验与计算研究

• 批准号: 0732267
• 负责人: Tyson Hedrick
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0732267&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Experimental; Computational; Investigation; Closed; Loop

Dr. Tyson Hedrick will study how animals achieve a variety of stable locomotor behaviors with a limited set of actuators of uncertain performance and a sensory system with inherent and variable delays. Specifically, the flight control of the hawkmoth Manduca sexta will be examined in a closed loop, free flight context using a combination of computational and experimental methods to analyze the system using engineering control theory. Feeding hawkmoths hover in front of the flower from which they draw nectar, and therefore must track the position and orientation of the flower. The flowers from which the hawkmoth feeds also tend to oscillate under the perturbation of a slight breeze or even the downward airflow generated by the moth''s own wings as it hovers near the flower. Thus, the hawkmoth has had to develop an effective tracking behavior, which can be elicited under laboratory conditions where the moth tracks the movements of a mechanically actuated artificial flower. This allows direct experimental manipulation and measurement of both the system input (flower position) and output (moth position) in a biologically relevant whole organism behavior. Furthermore, flower tracking is known to have an optical rather than tactile basis, and optic pathways are subject to large delays of 50 to 150 milliseconds, or 2 to 6 wingbeats. Orientation in flight is also partially sensed via optical pathways and is subject to these same delays. These delays may dominate the function of the controller to the extent that limitations in the neural and sensory systems require damping beyond what would be necessary for the biomechanical system considered separately. The influence of these different factors will be evaluated via extension of a dynamic simulation of the flight of Manduca sexta previously developed; this computational model will be used to evaluate the inferred flight control transfer functions in light of what is physically possible given the moth''s aerodynamics and maximum muscle power output. These results will establish a new system for examining closed loop control in freely behaving animals and will be of interest to researchers seeking to apply control theory to biological systems at a variety of scales. The broader impacts resulting from this proposed research include the exposure of high school and undergraduate students to hands-on, experimental approaches in organismal biology by way of laboratory assistanceships. Results from this research will be made available on the PI''s laboratory web site, presented at national and international conferences, and published in scientific journals. Finally, the results of this research will have applications to the flight and control of micro-air vehicles and other bio-mimentic engineering efforts.

泰森赫德里克博士将研究动物如何实现各种稳定的运动行为与一组有限的致动器的不确定性能和感官系统与固有的和可变的延迟。具体而言，天蛾天蛾的飞行控制将在一个闭环，自由飞行的情况下，使用计算和实验方法相结合的工程控制理论分析系统进行检查。 觅食的天蛾会盘旋在花蜜的花朵前，因此必须追踪花朵的位置和方向。天蛾取食的花朵也会在微风的扰动下摆动，甚至是天蛾在花朵附近盘旋时自己的翅膀产生的向下气流。因此，天蛾不得不发展出一种有效的跟踪行为，这可以在实验室条件下引起，其中蛾跟踪机械驱动的人造花的运动。这允许在生物学相关的整个生物体行为中直接实验操作和测量系统输入（花位置）和输出（蛾位置）。此外，已知花卉跟踪具有光学而不是触觉基础，并且光学路径受到50至150毫秒或2至6个翼拍的大延迟。 飞行中的定向也部分地经由光学路径感测并且经受这些相同的延迟。这些延迟可能主导控制器的功能，以至于神经和感觉系统中的限制需要超出单独考虑的生物力学系统所需的阻尼。这些不同因素的影响将通过对以前开发的天蛾飞行的动态模拟进行扩展来评估;该计算模型将用于根据给定蛾的空气动力学和最大肌肉功率输出的物理可能性来评估推断的飞行控制传递函数。 这些结果将建立一个新的系统，研究闭环控制在自由行为的动物，并将感兴趣的研究人员寻求应用控制理论的生物系统在各种规模。 这项拟议的研究产生的更广泛的影响包括高中和本科生接触动手，实验方法在生物学的实验室助理的方式。 这项研究的结果将在PI的实验室网站上公布，在国家和国际会议上发表，并在科学期刊上发表。最后，本研究的结果将应用于微型飞行器的飞行和控制以及其他仿生工程的努力。