arXiv · 1407.7993
Roll Control in Fruit Flies
Abstract
Due to aerodynamic instabilities, stabilizing flapping flight requires ever-present fast corrective actions. Here we investigate how flies control body roll angle, their most susceptible degree of freedom. We glue a magnet to each fly, apply a short magnetic pulse that rolls it in mid-air, and film the corrective maneuver. Flies correct perturbations of up to $100^{\circ}$ within $30\pm7\mathrm{ms}$ by applying a stroke-amplitude asymmetry that is well described by a linear PI controller. The response latency is $\sim5\mathrm{ms}$, making the roll correction reflex one of the fastest in the animal kingdom.
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Tsevi Beatus, John M. Guckenheimer, Itai Cohen. 2014-07-30. Roll Control in Fruit Flies. https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7993
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