Topic: Insights from Free Flight Perturbation Experiments on Hawkmoths

Date：Sep 15, 09:00~11:00

Venue：C708

Bio of the Speaker：

Tyson L. Hedrick - Associate Professor/Lab PI in the University of North Carolina Department of Biology

Prof. Hedrick began a Ph.D. in Biology at Harvard University where he worked under Prof. Andrew Biewener at the Concord Field Station. After completing his thesis, Aerodynamics, biomechanics and neuromuscular control of avian flight, he received a Ph.D. in June of 2004. He then worked as a postdoctoral research assistant with Dr. Thomas Daniel at the University of Washington with funding from the National Science Foundation and DARPA. He started his latest job as an Assistant Professor in the University of North Carolina Department of Biology in July, 2007.

His research focuses on how animals produce and control movement. This expands out into a broader interest in the structure and properties of biological networks as well as how they generate robust outputs in the face of uncertain circumstances and components of varying quality. In a more general sense, his lab examines animal flight aerodynamics and flight behavior across the breadth of flying organisms, from tiny parasitic wasps to fruit flies to large birds and bats.

Abstract：

Insect flight stability and maneuverability result from a complex feedback control system encompassing sensing, muscle dynamics, aerodynamics and even the material properties of the organism. These different systems have been investigated using a variety of approaches by many researchers. Dr. Hedrick and collaborators have focused on combining free flight recordings of voluntary maneuvers and involuntary mechanical and aerodynamic perturbations in hawkmoths. These experiments reveal the limits of compensation for different classes of perturbation along with a simple and effective rule for stabilizing insect flight shown in Navier-Stokes simulation as well as in real hovering hawkmoths perturbed by vortex rings and projectiles.