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Granular systems confined in vertically vibrated shallow horizontal boxes (quasi two-dimensional geometry) present a liquid to solid phase transition when the frequency of the periodic forcing is increased. An effective model, where grains…
We introduce here three complementary models to analyze the role of predation pressure in avian coloniality. Different explanations have been proposed for the existence of colonial breeding behavior in birds, but field studies offer no…
We perform a statistical analysis of deterministic energy-decreasing algorithms on mean-field spin models with complex energy landscape like the Sine model and the Sherrington Kirkpatrick model. We specifically address the following…
While experiencing atmospheric turbulence on a commercial flight can be uncomfortable, it rarely compromises the stability of the aircraft. The situation is quite different for small air vehicles that operate in urban canyons, around…
Ultrametric structure of the energy cascade process in a dynamical model of turbulence is studied. The tree model we use can be viewed as an approximated one-dimensional truncation of the wavelets resolved Navier-Stokes dynamics. Varying…
We study a simple model of a forager as a walk that modifies a relaxing substrate. Within it simplicity, this provides an insight on a number of relevant and non-intuitive facts. Even without memory of the good places to feed and no…
The propulsion of a flapping wing or foil is emblematic of bird flight and fish swimming. Previous studies have identified hallmarks of the propulsive dynamics that have been attributed to unsteady effects such as the formation and shedding…
Obstacle avoidance path planning for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, is rarely addressed in most flight path planning schemes, despite obstacles being a realistic condition. Obstacle avoidance can also be energy-intensive,…
Branching is an essential element of streamer discharge dynamics but today it is understood only qualitatively. The variability and irregularity observed in branched streamer trees suggest that stochastic terms are relevant for the…
Bipedal animals have diverse morphologies and advanced locomotion abilities. Terrestrial birds, in particular, display agile, efficient, and robust running motion, in which they exploit the interplay between the body segment masses and…
Insects control unsteady aerodynamic forces on flapping wings to navigate complex environments. While understanding these forces is vital for biology, physics, and engineering, existing evaluation methods face trade-offs: high-fidelity…
Collective locomotion of swimming and flying animals is fascinating in terms of individual-level fluid mechanics and group-level structure and dynamics. Here we bridge and relate these scales through a model of formation flight that views…
Several distributed algorithms are presented for the exploration of unknown indoor regions by a swarm of flying, energy constrained agents. The agents, which are identical, autonomous, anonymous and oblivious, uniformly cover the region and…
Fluctuating wind energy makes a stable grid operation challenging. Due to the direct contact with atmospheric turbulence, intermittent short-term variations in the wind speed are converted to power fluctuations that cause transient…
Bio-inspired flapping wings have been extensively studied for their remarkable aerodynamic performance. Recently, their noise emission has attracted growing interest, but a careful analysis of scaling laws for their sound generation is…
Stretching and retracting wingspan has been widely observed in the flight of birds and bats, and its effects on the aerodynamic performance particularly lift generation are intriguing. The rectangular flat-plate flapping wing with a…
Turbulence is an out-of-equilibrium flow state that is characterised by nonzero net fluxes of kinetic energy between different scales of the flow. These fluxes play a crucial role in the formation of characteristic flow structures in many…
Understanding efficient fish locomotion offers insights for biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and engineering. Traditional studies often miss the link between neuromuscular control and whole-body movement. To explore energy transfer in…
Individuals traversing challenging obstacles are faced with a decision: they can adopt traversal strategies that minimally disrupt their normal locomotion patterns or they can adopt strategies that substantially alter their gait, conferring…
We experimentally study the aeroelastic instability boundaries and three-dimensional vortex dynamics of pitching swept wings, with the sweep angle ranging from 0 to 25 degrees. The structural dynamics of the wings are simulated using a…