Collaborative Research: Integrated Analysis of In-Flight Collision Avoidance Systems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公共法律111-5)资助的。所有动物都依赖于感觉、姿势和环境信息的整合来产生复杂的运动行为，如游泳、潜水或飞行。这个合作项目将研究神经系统如何根据肌肉的生物力学特性以及外部世界通过物理定律对身体施加的机械和环境约束，将感官收集的信息转换为运动命令。研究这些复杂行为方面的一个有利的模型系统是飞行昆虫避免碰撞动作的产生，因为人们对它们的神经系统和昆虫飞行的空气动力学机制了解很多。将在该项目上合作的三个研究团队分别位于贝勒医学院、莱斯大学和亚利桑那大学，并将分别带来神经生理学、高级计算机建模和空气动力学工程方面的互补专业知识。这项工作将提供一个全面的描述飞行中的碰撞避免对视觉威胁的反应，因此将有助于对复杂的感觉-运动转换的基础行为的综合理解。在工作过程中收集的新见解可以应用于各种车辆的实时人工视觉系统和防撞系统的设计。该项目还将通过创造获得跨学科研究经验的机会，在本科生、研究生和博士后层面提供研究培训。莱斯大学参与该项目的学生和研究助理将学习更多关于计算空气动力学、流体-结构相互作用建模、数据可视化和动画的知识。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).All animals rely on the integration of sensory, postural and environmental information to generate complex motor behaviors such as swimming, diving or flying. This collaborative project will study how the nervous system transforms information gathered by the senses into motor commands, based on the biomechanical properties of the muscles as well as the mechanical and environmental constraints imposed on the body by the outside world through the laws of physics. A favorable model system to study these complex aspects of behavior is the generation of collision avoidance maneuvers in flying insects, as much is known about their nervous system and the aerodynamic mechanisms underlying insect flight. The three research teams that will collaborate on this project are based at Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and the University of Arizona and will bring complementary expertise in neurophysiology, advanced computer modeling, and aerodynamic engineering, respectively. This work will provide a comprehensive description of in-flight collision avoidance in response to visual threats and will thus contribute to an integrated understanding of the basis of complex sensory-motor transformations underlying behavior. The new insights that will be gathered over the course of the work could be applied to the design of real-time artificial vision systems and collision avoidance systems for various vehicles. This project will also provide research training at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels by creating opportunities to gain interdisciplinary research experience. Students and research associates involved in the project at Rice University will learn more about computational aerodynamics, fluid-structure interaction modeling, and data visualization and animation.