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Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts

Musculoskeletal systems cope with many environmental perturbations without neurological control. These passive preflex responses aid animals to move swiftly through complex terrain. Whether preflexes play a substantial role in animal flight is uncertain. We investigated how birds cope with gusty env...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cheney, Jorn A., Stevenson, Jonathan P. J., Durston, Nicholas E., Song, Jialei, Usherwood, James R., Bomphrey, Richard J., Windsor, Shane P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7661293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33081609
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1748
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author Cheney, Jorn A.
Stevenson, Jonathan P. J.
Durston, Nicholas E.
Song, Jialei
Usherwood, James R.
Bomphrey, Richard J.
Windsor, Shane P.
author_facet Cheney, Jorn A.
Stevenson, Jonathan P. J.
Durston, Nicholas E.
Song, Jialei
Usherwood, James R.
Bomphrey, Richard J.
Windsor, Shane P.
author_sort Cheney, Jorn A.
collection PubMed
description Musculoskeletal systems cope with many environmental perturbations without neurological control. These passive preflex responses aid animals to move swiftly through complex terrain. Whether preflexes play a substantial role in animal flight is uncertain. We investigated how birds cope with gusty environments and found that their wings can act as a suspension system, reducing the effects of vertical gusts by elevating rapidly about the shoulder. This preflex mechanism rejected the gust impulse through inertial effects, diminishing the predicted impulse to the torso and head by 32% over the first 80 ms, before aerodynamic mechanisms took effect. For each wing, the centre of aerodynamic loading aligns with the centre of percussion, consistent with enhancing passive inertial gust rejection. The reduced motion of the torso in demanding conditions simplifies crucial tasks, such as landing, prey capture and visual tracking. Implementing a similar preflex mechanism in future small-scale aircraft will help to mitigate the effects of gusts and turbulence without added computational burden.
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spelling pubmed-76612932020-11-20 Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts Cheney, Jorn A. Stevenson, Jonathan P. J. Durston, Nicholas E. Song, Jialei Usherwood, James R. Bomphrey, Richard J. Windsor, Shane P. Proc Biol Sci Morphology and Biomechanics Musculoskeletal systems cope with many environmental perturbations without neurological control. These passive preflex responses aid animals to move swiftly through complex terrain. Whether preflexes play a substantial role in animal flight is uncertain. We investigated how birds cope with gusty environments and found that their wings can act as a suspension system, reducing the effects of vertical gusts by elevating rapidly about the shoulder. This preflex mechanism rejected the gust impulse through inertial effects, diminishing the predicted impulse to the torso and head by 32% over the first 80 ms, before aerodynamic mechanisms took effect. For each wing, the centre of aerodynamic loading aligns with the centre of percussion, consistent with enhancing passive inertial gust rejection. The reduced motion of the torso in demanding conditions simplifies crucial tasks, such as landing, prey capture and visual tracking. Implementing a similar preflex mechanism in future small-scale aircraft will help to mitigate the effects of gusts and turbulence without added computational burden. The Royal Society 2020-10-28 2020-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7661293/ /pubmed/33081609 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1748 Text en © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Morphology and Biomechanics
Cheney, Jorn A.
Stevenson, Jonathan P. J.
Durston, Nicholas E.
Song, Jialei
Usherwood, James R.
Bomphrey, Richard J.
Windsor, Shane P.
Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title_full Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title_fullStr Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title_full_unstemmed Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title_short Bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
title_sort bird wings act as a suspension system that rejects gusts
topic Morphology and Biomechanics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7661293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33081609
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1748
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