The excellent biological characteristics of insects provide an important source of inspiration for designing micro air vehicles (MAVs). Insect flight is an incredibly complex and energy-intensive process. Unique insect flight muscles and contraction mechanisms enable flapping at high frequencies. Moreover, the metabolic rate during flight can reach hundreds of times the resting state. Understanding energy consumption during flight is crucial for designing efficient biomimetic aircraft. This paper summarizes the structures and contraction mechanisms of insect flight muscles, explores the underlying metabolic processes, and identifies methods for energy substrate identification and detection, and discusses inspiration for biomimetic MAV design. This paper reviews energy consumption during insect flight, promotes the understanding of insect bioenergetics, and applies this information to the design of MAVs.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108092 | DOI Listing |
Biophys J
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences & Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180, USA. Electronic address:
Stretch activation (SA), a delayed increase in force production following rapid muscle lengthening, is critical to the function of vertebrate cardiac muscle and insect asynchronous indirect flight muscle (IFM). SA enables or increases power generation in muscle types used in a cyclical manner. Recently, myosin isoform expression has been implicated as a mechanism for varying the amplitude of SA in some muscle types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioinspir Biomim
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.
Flying insects have developed two distinct adaptive strategies to minimize wing damage during collisions. One strategy includes an elastic joint at the leading edge, which is evident in wasps and beetles, while another strategy features an adaptive and deformable leading edge, as seen in bumblebees and honeybees. Inspired by the latter, a novel approach has been developed for improving collision recovery in micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) by mimicking the principle of stiffness anisotropy present in the leading edges of these insects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Biol
January 2025
Research Group Neurobiology of Flight Control, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar, 53175 Bonn, Germany. Electronic address:
Approaching threats are perceived through visual looming, a rapid expansion of an image on the retina. Visual looming triggers defensive responses such as freezing, flight, turning, or take-off in a wide variety of organisms, from mice to fish to insects. In response to looming, flies perform rapid evasive turns known as saccades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransgenic Res
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management-Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
Lignin is a crucial defense phytochemical against phytophagous insects. Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) is a key enzyme in lignin biosynthesis. In this study, transgenic Populus davidiana × P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsects
November 2024
Forest Pest Methods Laboratory, USDA-APHIS-PPQ-S&T, 1398 West Truck Road, Buzzards Bay, MA 02542, USA.
The Asian longhorned beetle, (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae), is a serious pest of over 43 species of hardwood trees in North America, China and Europe. The development of an effective lure and trap for monitoring has been hindered by the fact that mate finding involves a rather complex series of behaviors and responses to several chemical (and visual), cues. Adults (female-biased) locate a tree via host kairomones.
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