Embodied linearity of speed control in Drosophila melanogaster

作者：Medici V^*; Fry S N

来源：Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2012, 9(77): 3260-3267.

DOI：10.1098/rsif.2012.0527

• Drosophila melanogaster
• insect flight
• behaviour
• flight control
• aerodynamics

Fruitflies regulate flight speed by adjusting their body angle. To understand how low-level posture control serves an overall linear visual speed control strategy, we visually induced free-flight acceleration responses in a wind tunnel and measured the body kinematics using high-speed videography. Subsequently, we reverse engineered the transfer function mapping body pitch angle onto flight speed. A linear model is able to reproduce the behavioural data with good accuracy. Our results show that linearity in speed control is realized already at the level of body posture-mediated speed control and is therefore embodied at the level of the complex aerodynamic mechanisms of body and wings. Together with previous results, this study reveals the existence of a linear hierarchical control strategy, which can provide relevant control principles for biomimetic implementations, such as autonomous flying micro air vehicles.

• 出版日期2012-12-7