"Flies are the most accomplished fliers on the planet in terms of aerodynamics," Dickinson said. "They can do things no other animal can, like land on ceilings or inclined surfaces. And they are especially deft at takeoffs and landings - their skill far exceeds that of any other insect or bird."
To study insect flight, he has built some amazing contraptions. One is a virtual reality "flight arena" for flies, in which he displays various moving scenes to tethered flies and records their wing motions. "Fly-o-rama" is like a small circus tent in which he records in three dimensions how a fly moves in response to various stimuli. Variations on these themes include a "rock-and-roll arena" in which he studies fly responses to mechanical stimuli, and "smell-o-vision," where visual stimulation is combined with food odors, such as vinegar.
He also constructed 10-inch long models of fruitfly wings - 100 times normal size - and immersed them in a vat of mineral oil to study the currents and vortexes set up by their wing motion.
This model, dubbed Robofly, enabled him to break down flies' rapid wing flapping into three distinct wing motions that not only allow insects to stay airborne, but also let them steer and execute amazing acrobatic maneuvers. These mechanisms, much different from the mechanisms used by birds and airplanes, seem to be common to most insects, and perhaps even to the hummingbird.
"This robotic fly enables you to resolve questions about how insects manage to fly that are impossible to address otherwise," said George Lauder, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University and an expert on how fish swim. "Michael is the only one I know who has quantified the forces on a moving biological appendage."
In other experiments he and his laboratory colleagues dissect fly flight muscles and nerves to tease out their interconnections or to record
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Contact: Robert Sanders
rls@pa.urel.berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley
24-Oct-2001