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The aerodynamics of free-flight maneuvers in Drosophila.
Journal article

The aerodynamics of free-flight maneuvers in Drosophila.

  • Fry SN Institute of Neuroinformatics, University/ETH Zürich, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Sayaman R
  • Dickinson MH
  • 2003-04-19
Published in:
  • Science (New York, N.Y.). - 2003
Acceleration
Animals
Biomechanical Phenomena
Body Constitution
Drosophila melanogaster
Flight, Animal
Friction
Mathematics
Motion
Movement
Physical Phenomena
Physics
Robotics
Rotation
Torque
Video Recording
Wings, Animal
English Using three-dimensional infrared high-speed video, we captured the wing and body kinematics of free-flying fruit flies as they performed rapid flight maneuvers. We then "replayed" the wing kinematics on a dynamically scaled robotic model to measure the aerodynamic forces produced by the wings. The results show that a fly generates rapid turns with surprisingly subtle modifications in wing motion, which nonetheless generate sufficient torque for the fly to rotate its body through each turn. The magnitude and time course of the torque and body motion during rapid turns indicate that inertia, not friction, dominates the flight dynamics of insects.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/190917
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