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Page 5 of 5 The flight simulator can be used to gather information about how the flies orientates towards certain visual stimuli. By changing the coupling between the flies’ difference in wing beat amplitude and the movement of the pattern it is, furthermore, possible to observe how flies learn or adapt to different feed-back situations. The flight simulator can, furthermore, provide knowledge about the flies’ energy-use and force generation at different flight manoeuvres.
One advantage by using fruit flies is the different genetic mutants that exist. These allow the researchers to use specific mutants to learn more about natural behaviour. It is, for instance, possible to use learning and memory deficient mutants to illuminate the role of experience for flight behaviour.
There are, however, also some disadvantages by using a flight simulator. The flies, for instance, do not move in the air and as a result they receive no feedback on their own motion from air resistance or from the halteres and such feedback are known to be crucial during free flight. The fruit flies, furthermore, change their body angle depending on their velocity and they turn the abdomen in the opposite direction to the one they want to turn to. But as long as the researchers are aware of the limitations of the flight simulator there are yet many more things it can teach us about the flight behaviour of the insects. Learning from nature
The results obtained by placing fruit flies in flight simulators do not only increase our fundamental knowledge fascinating creatures’ flight capabilities, but it also has a more direct application value for our own technology. Biomimetics is a relatively new branch of science, where engineers and biologists get inspiration from nature’s ‘technology’, which have evolved over billions of years. Knowledge on flight behaviour in insects can thus prove extremely useful in the development of small autonomous flying robots. There is much interest in developing such robots in these years, since they will be of use in search-and-rescue operations as well as for military purposes such as surveillance and recon missions. Many research groups are trying to develop these so-called micro-air vehicles based on insect morphology and flight performance. However, building small robots capable of mimicking the impressive flight abilities, we see in flies and other insects, remains a distant dream.
Translation from Danish and a slight modification of the following article:
Hesselberg, T. (2007). Fluer I flysimulatoren. Aktuel Naturvidenskab. Maj: 21-24. Further reading: Frye, M. A. (2007). Behavioral neurobiology: a vibrating gyroscope controls fly steering maneuvers. Current Biology 17, 134-136. Ellington, C. P. (1999). The novel aerodynamics of insect flight: applications to micro-air vehicles. Journal of Experimental Biology 202, 3439-3448. Brodsky, A. K. The evolution of insect flight. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1994 Heisenberg, M. and Wolf, R. Vision in Drosophila. Springer-Verlag. Berlin. 1984 Links:
http://stammhirn.biologie.uni-ulm.de/w4fly/LehmannLabHome.html
http://www.dickinson.caltech.edu/
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