Flies use corrective movements to maintain balance after an injury
Fruit flies are capable of compensating for catastrophic wing injuries. Researchers found that the flies maintain the same level of stability after losing 40% of their wings
This study could help to inform the design of versatile robots, which face the similar challenge of having to adapt quickly to mishaps in the field.
Scientists altered the wing length of anesthetized fruit flies. They then tested how this altered the wings, imitating what happens when an insect is injured.
They suspended the flies in a virtual reality ring. when researchers played virtual images on tiny screens in the ring, causing the flies to move as they would when actually flying.
Flies were found to compensate for their injuries by flapping the damaged wing harder and reducing the speed of the healthy one.
They accomplish this by modulating signals in their nervous system, allowing them to fine-tune their flight even after an injury
When fruit flies were injured, they started to flap their damaged wing more forcefully to compensate for this
Flies have evolved a unique mechanism to control the forces acting on their wings, allowing them to fly even though their wings are moving at supersonic speeds.
Fruit flies have about 200,000 neurons in their brain, and compared to our 100 billion, this number means they have a highly developed motor control system
This is one of the sophisticated robots we've ever built. It's also incredibly complex - and no existing robot comes close to this level of complexity
With increasingly complex environments, engineers are challenged to design robots that can adapt quickly to faults or mishaps
Flying insects can inspire the design of flying robots and drones that can respond intelligently to physical damage and maintain operations
An example would be designing a drone that can compensate for a broken motor in flight, or a legged robot that that can rely on its other legs when one leg gives out.
A prototype of a mechanical wing, close in size and function to that of a fruit fly, was created by the University of Colorado Boulder to study the mechanism by which flies compensate for wing damage in flight
Researchers replicated the Penn State experiments by cutting the mechanical wing and testing its interactions with the air
Mathematical models and assumptions allow us to simplify our computations, allowing us to get a better idea of what might happen if we do something
An artificial fly with the ability to communicate and interact with humans? That's the most incredible idea I've ever heard of!
All living things have certain limitations. The laws of physics do not change that.
So that’s why I set up my test to capture this setup