Robusticity and perturbation compensation in animal flight

动物飞行中的鲁棒性和扰动补偿

• 批准号: 0920358
• 负责人: Tyson Hedrick
• 金额: $ 40.43万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0920358&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Robusticity; perturbation; compensation; animal; flight

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.

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。该项目将研究其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，例如一阵风。飞行动物具有相当高的机动性，但由于它们的体型较小，它们也出乎意料地稳定，它们比类似大小的飞行器更好地抵抗飞行中断，但它们能力的来源尚不清楚。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。这项研究还将帮助人们更好地了解什么样的“软件”、感觉系统和反射必须进化才能让动物能够飞到空中，以及不同生态位的动物具有什么样的可操作性和稳定性的能力。这些主题将在实验室环境中使用天蛾 Manduca sexta 作为模式生物进行研究。曼杜卡是最大的飞行昆虫之一，大约有蜂鸟大小。它还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。一只飞蛾将被诱导盘旋，然后受到一阵风或系在飞蛾上的绳子的拉力的干扰，并由几个高速摄像机以慢动作捕捉它的反应。然后，该响应将在扑翼飞行的计算机模拟中进行分析和“回放”，测量 1) 飞蛾响应不同幅度扰动的整体能力和 2) 响应的空气动力学来源。这些预计将表明，飞蛾使用 PI 先前发现的被动机制来响应偏航转动扰动，但主动且立即（在下一个扑动中）对俯仰扰动做出响应。这些反应预计会采取翅膀扑动运动变化的形式，以保持翅膀运动基本垂直于重力，而不管飞蛾的身体方向如何。