An Integrative Model of Insect Flight Control

This paper presents a framework for simulating the flight dynamics and control strategies of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The framework consists of five main components; an articulated rigid-body simulation, a model of the aerodynamic forces and moments, a sensory systems model, a control model, and an environment model. In the rigid-body simulation the fly is represented by a system of three rigid-bodies connected by a pair of actuated ball-joints. At each instant of the simulation, the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the wings and body of the fly are calculated using an empirically derived quasi-steady model. The pattern of wing kinematics is based on data captured from highspeed video sequences. The forces and moments produced by the wings are modulated by deforming the base wing kinematics along certain characteristic actuation modes. Models of the fly’s visual and mechanosensory systems are used to generate inputs to a controller that sets the magnitude of each actuation mode, thus modulating the forces produced by the wings. This simulation framework provides quantitative test-bed for examining the possible control strategies employed by flying insects. Examples demonstrating visual and mechanosensory based pitch rate, velocity, altitude and flight speed control, as well as visually guided flight down a tunnel, are presented.