Insects in Free Flight: Experiments, Computations, and Mathematical Analysis

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Insect flight is a complex system comprised of multiple interacting elements. Despite recent progress in understanding the underlying unsteady aerodynamics, which are notably different from conventional aerodynamics, relatively little is known about how insects execute flight maneuvers and far less is known about the main mechanisms that determine the diverse behaviors seen in natural flight. We propose an integrated approach to the study of insect flight that incorporates high resolution kinematics of freely flying insects, aerodynamic analysis of wing and body motions, and dynamical systems analysis of these data that will lead to reduced order models. Specifically, we propose three high risk pilot studies: 1) develop automated tracking techniques for 3D flight data that will be essential for aerodynamic and statistical analysis of cross-species comparison of free flight behaviors, 2) provide for the first time a direct connection between the internal muscles to the external observables in free flight through aerodynamics analysis and direct measurements, and 3) perform novel mathematical analysis of stability of free flight and build tools for constructing data-driven reduced order models.We expect that this unprecedented integration of large experimental data sets and numerical analyses will transform research on insect flight. Our work will provide new tools to investigate fundamental issues relating to efficiency, stability, and control in animal locomotion. The techniques, algorithms and routines we develop will be distributed and made available to the research community through our web sites. The PI's will continue with their outreach activities which include: giving public lectures, providing K-12 teaching support, and organizing workshops.