A photo of the flight simulator in the Biofutures Group at the University of Ulm

Most of us may remember from the school’s biology lessons that the small fruit fly, with the characteristic red eyes, is an important model organism in genetics. Fruit flies, however, are also excellent model organisms in other areas of life science. In this article, we will look at how fruit flies can be used to understand the role of the visual system in flying insects. Apart from increasing our knowledge about the most species rich group of animals, it is important to know more about the role of vision in insects as it might give new insights into the interaction between motion control and vision in humans. The gained knowledge can, furthermore, prove valuable in the development of biologically inspired flying robots.

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