Visual control of flight speed in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) was investigated by training them to fly through a specially constructed tunnel in which the motion, contrast and texture of the patterns lining the walls could be varied. Manipulation of pattern motion revealed that the speed of flight is controlled by regulating the image motion that is experienced by the eyes. Flight speed is surprisingly robust to changes in the contrast and/or spatial texture of the visual environment, suggesting that the underlying movement-detecting mechanisms estimate the speed of image motion in the eye largely independently of these parameters. This ensures that flight speed depends primarily on the distances to nearby surfaces and not upon their particular visual properties, such as contrast or visual texture. The removal of image motion cues drastically compromises the regulation of flight speed, underscoring their role in this function.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01818 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Paying more attention on backgrounds: Background-centric attention for UAV detection.
Neural Netw
January 2025
College of Engineering, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China; Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology, Ministry of Education, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China. Electronic address:
Under the advancement of artificial intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) exhibit efficient flexibility in military reconnaissance, traffic monitoring, and crop analysis. However, the UAV detection faces unique challenges due to the UAV's small size in images, high flight speeds, and limited computational resources. This paper introduces a novel Background-centric Attention Module (BAM) to address these challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA numerical approach to model and analyse geometric characteristics of a grey-headed albatross aerofoil in flight.
Bioinspir Biomim
January 2025
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, SOUTH AFRICA.
Limited research exists on the 3D geometric models and aerodynamic characteristics of the Grey-headed Albatross (GHA). Despite existing methods for extracting bird wing cross-sections, few studies consider deflections due to aerodynamic pressure. With the GHA known for its exceptional flight speed and purported wing-lock mechanism, it offers a valuable subject for studying fixed-wing aerodynamicsin nature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSafety-assured high-speed navigation for MAVs.
Sci Robot
January 2025
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
Micro air vehicles (MAVs) capable of high-speed autonomous navigation in unknown environments have the potential to improve applications like search and rescue and disaster relief, where timely and safe navigation is critical. However, achieving autonomous, safe, and high-speed MAV navigation faces systematic challenges, necessitating reduced vehicle weight and size for high-speed maneuvering, strong sensing capability for detecting obstacles at a distance, and advanced planning and control algorithms maximizing flight speed while ensuring obstacle avoidance. Here, we present the safety-assured high-speed aerial robot (SUPER), a compact MAV with a 280-millimeter wheelbase and a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbon-carbon (C/C) composites are attractive materials for high-speed flights and terrestrial atmospheric reentry applications due to their insulating thermal properties, thermal resistance, and high strength-to-weight ratio. It is important to understand the evolving structure-property correlations in these materials during pyrolysis, but the extreme laboratory conditions required to produce C/C composites make it difficult to quantify the properties . This work presents an atomistic modeling methodology to pyrolyze a crosslinked phenolic resin network and track the evolving thermomechanical properties of the skeletal matrix during simulated pyrolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCombining radio-telemetry and radar measurements to test optimal foraging in an aerial insectivore bird.
Elife
January 2025
Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology and Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Optimal foraging theory posits that foragers adjust their movements based on prey abundance to optimize food intake. While extensively studied in terrestrial and marine environments, aerial foraging has remained relatively unexplored due to technological limitations. This study, uniquely combining BirdScan-MR1 radar and the Advanced Tracking and Localization of Animals in Real-Life Systems biotelemetry system, investigates the foraging dynamics of Little Swifts () in response to insect movements over Israel's Hula Valley.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!