Coupled Dynamics Between Flapping Wings and Vibrating Thorax During Insect Flight

昆虫飞行在生物学和工程界引发了许多研究。对于生物学家来说，这些研究为动物的感觉/运动协调提供了重要的见解。对于工程师来说，这样的研究在自主微型飞行器上有潜在的应用。本研究的目的是开发一种昆虫飞行的模拟模型，该模型结合了昆虫解剖学的主要贡献成分，以及适应现实的大翅膀旋转。只有通过工程师和生物学家跨学科的综合努力，昆虫飞行分析和建模方面的重大进展才有可能实现。为了了解昆虫飞行的结构动力学，人们做了许多尝试，但结果还远远不够完整。例如，大多数先前的飞行研究都孤立了翅膀动力学，而忽略了真正的昆虫产生和传递翅膀力量所需要的支撑解剖学。以前对昆虫肌肉和外骨骼的研究只考虑了非常小的运动。然而，几乎可以肯定的是，非常微小的运动的外推是不足以捕捉到一个真正的飞行昆虫的大翅膀旋转和肌肉和胸部收缩。这个项目的成果可以使未来的自主机器对社会有很大的好处，比如用于救灾的微型飞行器。本项目将通过三个主要的研究任务来推进昆虫飞行模型的发展。第一个任务是模拟机翼的大的三维旋转。这将使用静态机翼的有限元分析，然后对三维旋转效应（如科里奥利耦合）进行校正。第二项任务是通过从机翼和胸腔进行组件模式综合，在系统级进行降阶建模。第三个任务是通过在真空室中使用人工机翼进行校准实验来验证模型。这项研究具有变革性和转译性。它通过注入新颖的思想，如系统级建模、结合三维有限旋转的能力和降阶建模来抽象感觉-运动协调，从而改变了昆虫飞行/结构动力学的研究领域。它还可以让我们了解肌肉激活如何影响飞行条件和翅膀上的张力感受器，反之亦然。从昆虫飞行/结构动力学中获得的知识可以直接转移到微型飞行器应用中。

Insect flight has motivated many research studies in the biology and engineering communities. For biologists, such studies provide critical insights into sensory/motor coordination in animals. For engineers, such studies have potential applications to autonomous micro-aerial vehicles. The objective of this research is to develop a simulation model of insect flight that incorporates the major contributing components of the insect anatomy, as well as accommodating realistically large wing rotations. This significant advance in the analysis and modeling of insect flight will be possible only through an integrated interdisciplinary effort by engineers and biologists. Many attempts have been made to understand the structural dynamics of insect flight, however the results are far from complete. For example, most previous flight research isolates the wing dynamics, and ignores the supporting anatomy that real insects need to generate and transmit wing forces. Previous studies of insect muscle and exoskeleton consider only very small movements. However it is almost certain that extrapolation of very small movements is insufficient to capture the large wing rotations and muscle and thorax contractions of a real flying insect. The results of this project could enable future autonomous machines of great benefit to society, such as micro-aerial vehicles for disaster relief. This project will advance the state of the art in insect flight modeling by three major research tasks. The first task is to model large 3-dimensional rotations of the wings. This will be done using finite element analyses of a static wing followed by a correction for 3-dimensional rotation effects, such as Coriolis coupling. The second task is reduced-order modeling at the system level, by conducting component-mode synthesis from the wing and thorax. The third task is to validate the models by conducting calibrated experiments using an artificial wing in a vacuum chamber. This research is transformative and translational. It transforms the research area of insect flight/structural dynamics by injecting novel ideas, such as system-level modeling, capability to incorporate 3-dimensional finite rotation, and reduced-order modeling to abstract sensori-motor coordination. It will also allow understanding of how muscle activation affects flying conditions and strain receptors in the wing and vice versa. The knowledge gained from insect flight/structural dynamics can be transferred directly to micro-aerial vehicle applications.