Flight Control in Insects

A flapping insect is a complex dynamical system subject to fast-growing mechanical instabilities that must be controlled to allow flight. Hence, similar to balancing a stick on one`s fingertip, flapping flight is a delicate balancing act made possible only by ever-present, fast corrective actions. In this talk, we will present a perturbation experiment with free-flying fruit flies that elucidates how flies control their unstable degrees of freedom pitch and roll. Along roll, for example, flies respond to mechanical perturbations within a single wing-beat, or 5 milliseconds, making this correction reflex one of the fastest in the animal kingdom. These results, along with initial evidence for nonlinear control mechanisms, pose insect flight control as a potential model system for studying advanced control mechanisms and fast neural reflexes, as well as an inspiration for developing tiny flying robots.