Daniel IBN-9511681 Insect flight is a highly efficient mode of locomotion. Interest in studies of insect flight arises partially from the need to develop new design criteria for artificial robotic systems. This research project focuses on the development of computer models for flight and flight control in insects. The goal of this work is to better understand how sensory feedback from the wings and pattern-generating circuits in the central nervous system govern flight performance. The current approaches of studying any single component of insect flight (muscle mechanics, aerodynamics, or neural control) alone cannot be used as predictive models. In this work, mathematical and experimental approaches are incorporated into the models in order to understand the physics of force production by muscles and the physics of aerodynamic lift and thrust generation by wings. Computer models will solve these problems of physics simultaneously to predict flight performance in the moth Manduca sexta, the tobacco hornworm moth. This group of researchers couple these processes in developing a novel biological and engineering approach for a priori predictions of flight dynamics in response to a suite of physiological and physical parameters. By this method we can better understand the physics, physiology and control of flight dynamics.
