Gyroscopes, image reading capabilities ten times that of a human, sophisticated sensors sounds like the next generation of robots. Well, not quite. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We’re talking about something more ancient and complicated than any robot the ordinary housefly. Michael Dickinson, a Professor of Biology and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, is studying how flies fly. And it’s not as simple as it may sound.
“One of the most surprising things about flies is that their behavior emerges from the control of a very, very small number of output elements. Flies are not using a large number of muscles to control their wings. And all the sophisticated behavior that you see really boils down to changes in the pattern of a handful of cells. They are however using an enormous number of sophisticated sensory systems to control that motor output. They’re using image-forming eyes that process information roughly ten times faster than human eyes. Flies have gyroscopes that can tell the fly how they’re rotating in space and they can take that information and fuse it with the information coming from the eyes. And on a moment by moment basis the fly’s nervous system is combining all of this information and turning it into the output of just a small number of cells controlling muscles right at the base of the wing to perform these absolutely extraordinary aerial maneuvers.”
By gaining insight into how such a small number of cells can control a diversity of aeronautic feats, researchers hope to learn more about the design of biological systems. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation.
music
Insect Flight- More Than a Flap
Flies have built-in bio-instrumentation that human aviators can only marvel at.
Air Date:11/21/2006
Scientist:
Transcript:
music ambience: housefly
Gyroscopes, image reading capabilities ten times that of a human, sophisticated sensors sounds like the next generation of robots. Well, not quite. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We're talking about something more ancient and complicated than any robot the ordinary housefly. Michael Dickinson, a Professor of Biology and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, is studying how flies fly. And it's not as simple as it may sound.
"One of the most surprising things about flies is that their behavior emerges from the control of a very, very small number of output elements. Flies are not using a large number of muscles to control their wings. And all the sophisticated behavior that you see really boils down to changes in the pattern of a handful of cells. They are however using an enormous number of sophisticated sensory systems to control that motor output. They're using image-forming eyes that process information roughly ten times faster than human eyes. Flies have gyroscopes that can tell the fly how they're rotating in space and they can take that information and fuse it with the information coming from the eyes. And on a moment by moment basis the fly's nervous system is combining all of this information and turning it into the output of just a small number of cells controlling muscles right at the base of the wing to perform these absolutely extraordinary aerial maneuvers."
By gaining insight into how such a small number of cells can control a diversity of aeronautic feats, researchers hope to learn more about the design of biological systems. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation.