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SUMMARY:Flight of the fruit fly - Itai Cohen\, Cornell University
DTSTART:20140516T150000Z
DTEND:20140516T160000Z
UID:TALK52226@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr C. P.  Caulfield
DESCRIPTION:There comes a time in each of our lives where we grab a thick 
 section of the morning paper\, roll it up and set off to do battle with on
 e of nature’s most accomplished aviators - the fly. If however\, instead
  of swatting we could magnify our view and experience the world in slow mo
 tion we would be privy to a world-class ballet full of graceful figure-eig
 ht wing strokes\, effortless pirouettes\, and astonishing acrobatics. Afte
 r watching such a magnificent display\, who among us could destroy this vi
 rtuoso? How do flies produce acrobatic maneuvers with such precision? What
  control mechanisms do they need to maneuver? More abstractly\, what probl
 em are they solving as they fly? Despite pioneering studies of flight cont
 rol in tethered insects\, robotic wing experiments\, and fluid dynamics si
 mulations that have revealed basic mechanisms for unsteady force generatio
 n during steady flight\, the answers to these questions remain elusive. In
  this talk I will discuss our strategy for investigating these unanswered 
 questions. I will begin by describing our automated apparatus for recordin
 g the free flight of fruit flies and our technique called Hull Reconstruct
 ion Motion Tracking (HRMT) for backing out the wing and body kinematics. I
  will then show that these techniques can be used to reveal the underlying
  mechanisms for flight maneuvers\, wing actuation\, and flight stability. 
 Finally\, I will comment on the implications of these discoveries for inve
 stigations aimed at elucidating the evolution of flight.
LOCATION:MR2\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cambr
 idge
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