Visualization and Control in Insect Flight

Atilla Bergou, Physics Department, Cornell University

Insects have a 100 million year head-start on us in learning how to fly. Thus, we have a lot to learn from them. Currently, one of the greatest challenges in this study is the accurate measurement, characterization and visualization of the motions of these animals. Recent advances in high-speed videography have allowed us to begin exploiting techniques from computer vision which hold immense promise to resolve these problems. In this talk, I will show our efforts in incorporating ideas from computer vision and physics to study the complex motion of an insect’s wing. This motion is due not only to muscular activation but also to fluid, inertial, and elastic forces. Thus, it may be that not all aspects of the wing motion are actively controlled by the insect. We ask whether changes in the wing orientation of flying fruit flies are actuated by insect muscles, or if their wings turn over passively like a falling leaf. By applying a three- dimensional reconstruction technique to high-speed films of freely flying fruit flies, we are able to capture their intricate motion at a level of detail that has previously been impossible. We extract the detailed wing kinematics of flies using a novel motion tracking algorithm, compute the forces acting on the wings and infer whether flapping flight is possible without pitching control.

The talk is 3pm Wed 4 Feb CESPR 414 Sindeband East.