A Fly Control Exhibit

Trachoma and fly control.

Everybody is aware of the annoyance and irritation caused by flies as they buzz around food and crawl over skin. In trachoma endemic areas, flies are frequently seen clustering around the face and eyes of children where they feed on mucus and discharge (Fig.1). This association of flies with the faces of infected children has not gone unnoticed, and they have been considered as vectors of trach...

Control-Oriented Learning on the Fly

This paper focuses on developing a strategy for control of systems whose dynamics are almost entirely unknown. This situation arises naturally in a scenario where a system undergoes a critical failure. In that case, it is imperative to retain the ability to satisfy basic control objectives in order to avert an imminent catastrophe. A prime example of such an objective is the reach-avoid problem...

Remote Control of Fruit Fly Behavior

Electrical stimulation of neurons in the central nervous system of awake, behaving animals offers the ultimate test to determine whether the activation of specific neurons is sufficient to elicit perception, motor activity, or other behaviors. In this issue of Cell, Lima and Miesenböck (Lima and Miesenböck, 2005) dump the stimulating electrode in favor of a new remote control system to excite s...

Control of Fly-Breeding in Compost Heaps

On-the-Fly Control Software Synthesis

The Model Based Design approach for Hybrid Systems control software synthesis is particularly appealing since Formal System Level Specifications are usually much easier to define than the control software itself. In this setting, Design Space Exploration has the goal to find a suitable (with respect to costs and performance) choice for system design parameters. Unfortunately, a substantial part...