Page 264 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

262 The Origin of Birds and Flight

California University Professor of Biology
Michael Dickinson and his team developed a robot
to duplicate the flight technique of fruit flies. Yet
their robot is 100 times larger than a fly and can
open and close its wings at a speed only 1,000
times slower than the fruit fly can. Furthermore, in
order to replicate the fly’s actions, the robot—
which can only move its wing once every five sec-
onds—must use six separate engines. 232 Professor Michael
Dickinson

One of the ex-
periments that
Dickinson set
up to determine
and replicate
the flying tech-
nique in in-
sects.

Drosophila melanogaster: this fruit fly, beat- In studying the aerodynamics of insect
ing its wings 200 times a second, has one of flight with advanced technology, Dickinson
the complex aerodynamic properties in na- and his team were still unable to fully un-
ture. Above is a simulation image of a time derstand the insects’ flawless maneuver-
frame of just 1/1,000th of a second. ability.