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。该项目将研究飞行动物机动性和稳定性的来源和潜在原理，特别是它们如何应对意想不到的环境扰动，如一阵风。飞行动物的机动性很强，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，但它们能力的来源尚未得到很好的理解。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。这项研究还将使我们更好地理解，为了让动物飞到空中，必须进化出什么样的“软件”、感觉系统和反射，以及不同生态位的动物在可操作性和稳定性方面具有什么样的能力。这些主题将在实验室环境中以天蛾（Manduca sexta）为模式生物进行研究。曼都卡是最大的飞虫之一，大约有蜂鸟那么大。它还能像蜂鸟一样稳定地悬停飞行，这种行为将成为实验的基础。飞蛾会被诱导悬停，然后被一阵风或绑在飞蛾上的绳子拉扯，飞蛾的反应会被几台高速摄像机以慢镜头拍摄下来。然后，该响应将被分析并在扑翼飞行的计算机模拟中“回放”，以测量1)飞蛾对不同量级扰动的整体响应能力，以及2)响应的空气动力学来源。这些结果表明，飞蛾使用PI先前发现的被动机制来响应偏航转向扰动，但对俯仰扰动做出积极和立即的响应（在下一个襟翼）。这些反应预计会以翅膀拍打运动的变化的形式出现，以保持翅膀的运动基本上垂直于重力，而不管飞蛾的身体方向如何。

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.