Robusticity and perturbation compensation in animal flight

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目将研究来源，并探索飞行动物的机动性和稳定性的基本原理，特别是它们如何应对意外的环境扰动，如阵风。飞行动物是相当稳定的，但也出乎意料地稳定，因为它们的体积小，它们比类似大小的飞行器更能抵抗飞行中断，但它们能力的来源还不清楚。因此，研究动物如何管理自己的飞行机动性和稳定性可能会导致人类设计的飞行器的改进。这项研究还将有助于更好地理解什么样的“软件”，感觉系统和反射必须进化到允许动物飞向空中，以及不同生态位中的动物具有什么样的机动性和稳定性。这些主题将在实验室环境中使用天蛾作为模式生物进行调查。Manduca是最大的飞行昆虫之一，大约有蜂鸟那么大。它也能够像蜂鸟一样稳定地悬停飞行，这种行为将成为实验的基础。一只飞蛾被诱导盘旋，然后被一阵风或一根绑在飞蛾身上的绳子上的拉力所扰动，它的反应被几个高速摄像机以慢动作捕捉下来。然后将在拍打飞行的计算机模拟中分析和“回放”响应，测量1）蛾对不同大小的扰动的整体响应能力和2）响应的空气动力学来源。这些预计将表明，蛾使用一个被动的机制，以前发现的PI响应偏航转向扰动，但积极和立即（在下一个皮瓣）的俯仰扰动。这些反应预计将采取的形式，在翅膀拍打运动的变化，以保持翅膀运动对齐主要垂直于重力，无论蛾的身体方向。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project will study the sources and explore underlying principles for maneuverability and stability in flying animals, especially how they respond to unexpected environmental perturbations such as a gust of wind. Flying animals are quite maneuverable but also unexpectedly stable given their small size, they resist disruption of their flight better than a flying vehicle of similar size, but the sources of their capabilities are not well understood. Thus, studying how animals manage their own flight maneuverability and stability may lead to improvements in human designed flying machines. This study will also lead to a better understand what sort of 'software', sensory systems and reflexes must have evolved to allow animals to take to the air, and what sorts of capabilities animals in different ecological niches have for maneuverability and stability. These topics will be investigated in a lab setting using the hawkmoth Manduca sexta as a model organism. Manduca is one of the largest flying insects, about the size of a hummingbird. It is also capable of steady hovering flight much like a hummingbird, and this behavior will be the basis for the experiments. A moth will be induced to hover, then perturbed by a gust of wind or a tug on a string attached to the moth and its response captured in slow motion by several high-speed video cameras. The response will then be analyzed and 'played back' in computer simulations of flapping flight, measuring 1) the moth's overall capability to respond to perturbations of different magnitude and 2) the aerodynamic sources of the response. These are expected to show that the moths use a passive mechanism previously discovered by the PI to respond to yaw turn perturbations, but respond actively and immediately (in the next flap) to perturbations in pitch. These responses are expected to take the form of a change in wing flapping motion to keep wing motion aligned mostly perpendicular to gravity regardless of the moth's body orientation.