PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
To understand the locomotory mechanisms of flying and swimming animals, it is often necessary to develop assays that enable us to measure their responses to external gust perturbations. Typically, such measurements have been carried out using a variety of gusts which are difficult to control or characterize owing to their inherently turbulent nature. Here, we present a method of generating discrete gusts under controlled laboratory conditions in the form of a vortex rings which are well-characterized and highly controllable. We also provide the theoretical guidelines underlying the design of gust generators for specific applications. As a case study, we tested the efficacy of this method to study the flight response of freely-flying soldier flies Hermetia illucens. The vortex ring based method can be used to generate controlled gusts to study diverse phenomena ranging from a natural flight in insects to the artificial flight of insect-sized drones and micro-aerial vehicles.
摘要：
为了了解飞行和游泳动物的运动机制，通常有必要开发使我们能够测量它们对外部阵风扰动的反应的分析方法。通常,这种测量已经使用各种阵风进行,这些阵风由于其固有的湍流性质而难以控制或表征。这里,我们提出了一种在受控实验室条件下以特征良好且高度可控的涡流环形式产生离散阵风的方法。我们还提供了针对特定应用的阵风发生器设计的理论指导。作为一个案例研究，我们测试了这种方法的有效性，以研究自由飞行的士兵的飞行反应。基于涡流环的方法可用于产生受控阵风，以研究各种现象，从昆虫的自然飞行到昆虫大小的无人机和微型飞行器的人工飞行。
