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Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia

The remarkable maneuverability of flying animals results from precise movements of their highly specialized wings. Bats have evolved an impressive capacity to control their flight, in large part due to their ability to modulate wing shape, area, and angle of attack through many independently control...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bergou, Attila J., Swartz, Sharon M., Vejdani, Hamid, Riskin, Daniel K., Reimnitz, Lauren, Taubin, Gabriel, Breuer, Kenneth S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4646499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26569116
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002297
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author Bergou, Attila J.
Swartz, Sharon M.
Vejdani, Hamid
Riskin, Daniel K.
Reimnitz, Lauren
Taubin, Gabriel
Breuer, Kenneth S.
author_facet Bergou, Attila J.
Swartz, Sharon M.
Vejdani, Hamid
Riskin, Daniel K.
Reimnitz, Lauren
Taubin, Gabriel
Breuer, Kenneth S.
author_sort Bergou, Attila J.
collection PubMed
description The remarkable maneuverability of flying animals results from precise movements of their highly specialized wings. Bats have evolved an impressive capacity to control their flight, in large part due to their ability to modulate wing shape, area, and angle of attack through many independently controlled joints. Bat wings, however, also contain many bones and relatively large muscles, and thus the ratio of bats’ wing mass to their body mass is larger than it is for all other extant flyers. Although the inertia in bat wings would typically be associated with decreased aerial maneuverability, we show that bat maneuvers challenge this notion. We use a model-based tracking algorithm to measure the wing and body kinematics of bats performing complex aerial rotations. Using a minimal model of a bat with only six degrees of kinematic freedom, we show that bats can perform body rolls by selectively retracting one wing during the flapping cycle. We also show that this maneuver does not rely on aerodynamic forces, and furthermore that a fruit fly, with nearly massless wings, would not exhibit this effect. Similar results are shown for a pitching maneuver. Finally, we combine high-resolution kinematics of wing and body movements during landing and falling maneuvers with a 52-degree-of-freedom dynamical model of a bat to show that modulation of wing inertia plays the dominant role in reorienting the bat during landing and falling maneuvers, with minimal contribution from aerodynamic forces. Bats can, therefore, use their wings as multifunctional organs, capable of sophisticated aerodynamic and inertial dynamics not previously observed in other flying animals. This may also have implications for the control of aerial robotic vehicles.
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spelling pubmed-46464992015-11-25 Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia Bergou, Attila J. Swartz, Sharon M. Vejdani, Hamid Riskin, Daniel K. Reimnitz, Lauren Taubin, Gabriel Breuer, Kenneth S. PLoS Biol Research Article The remarkable maneuverability of flying animals results from precise movements of their highly specialized wings. Bats have evolved an impressive capacity to control their flight, in large part due to their ability to modulate wing shape, area, and angle of attack through many independently controlled joints. Bat wings, however, also contain many bones and relatively large muscles, and thus the ratio of bats’ wing mass to their body mass is larger than it is for all other extant flyers. Although the inertia in bat wings would typically be associated with decreased aerial maneuverability, we show that bat maneuvers challenge this notion. We use a model-based tracking algorithm to measure the wing and body kinematics of bats performing complex aerial rotations. Using a minimal model of a bat with only six degrees of kinematic freedom, we show that bats can perform body rolls by selectively retracting one wing during the flapping cycle. We also show that this maneuver does not rely on aerodynamic forces, and furthermore that a fruit fly, with nearly massless wings, would not exhibit this effect. Similar results are shown for a pitching maneuver. Finally, we combine high-resolution kinematics of wing and body movements during landing and falling maneuvers with a 52-degree-of-freedom dynamical model of a bat to show that modulation of wing inertia plays the dominant role in reorienting the bat during landing and falling maneuvers, with minimal contribution from aerodynamic forces. Bats can, therefore, use their wings as multifunctional organs, capable of sophisticated aerodynamic and inertial dynamics not previously observed in other flying animals. This may also have implications for the control of aerial robotic vehicles. Public Library of Science 2015-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4646499/ /pubmed/26569116 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002297 Text en © 2015 Bergou et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bergou, Attila J.
Swartz, Sharon M.
Vejdani, Hamid
Riskin, Daniel K.
Reimnitz, Lauren
Taubin, Gabriel
Breuer, Kenneth S.
Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title_full Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title_fullStr Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title_full_unstemmed Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title_short Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia
title_sort falling with style: bats perform complex aerial rotations by adjusting wing inertia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4646499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26569116
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002297
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