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Insects have tiny brains but complicated visual systems for motion perception. A handful of insect visual neurons have been computationally modeled and successfully applied for robotics. How different neurons collaborate on motion…
The main contribution of this MS Thesis is centered around taking steps towards successful multi-modal demonstrations using Northeastern's legged-aerial robot, Husky Carbon. This work discusses the challenges involved in achieving…
"Cicada: a Heavy but Agile Flyer" is a fluid dynamic video submitted to Gallery of Fluid Motion in APS-DFD 2011. Comparing to other insects, cicadas can generate much higher lift to overcome their large body weight. The hidden mechanism may…
Researchers have hypothesized that the post-stall lift benefit of bird's alular feathers, or alula, stems from the maintenance of an attached leading-edge vortex (LEV) over their thin-profiled, outer hand-wing. Here, we investigate the…
The centimeter-scale cyborg insects have a potential advantage for application in narrow environments where humans cannot operate. To realize such tasks, researchers have developed a small printed-circuit-board (PCB) which an insect can…
Most biological flyers undergo orderly deformation in flight, and the deformations of wings lead to complex fluid-structure interactions. In this paper, an aerodynamic-structural coupling method of flapping wing is developed based on ANSYS…
Aerodynamic force generation and mechanical power requirements of a dragonfly (Aeschna juncea) in hovering flight are studied. The method of numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations in moving overset grids is used. There are two…
The wing structure of several insects, including dragonflies, is not smooth, but corrugated; its vertical cross-section consists of a connected series of line segments. Some previous studies have reported that corrugated wings exhibit…
Wing-assisted inclined running (WAIR) observed in some young birds, is an attractive maneuver that can be extended to legged aerial systems. This study proposes a control method using a modified Variable Length Inverted Pendulum (VLIP) by…
The backswimmer fly is an aquatic insect, capable of regulating its buoyancy underwater. Its abdomen is covered with hemoglobin cells, used to bind and release oxygen, reversibly. Upon entering water, the fly entraps an air bubble in a…
For centuries, soaring birds -- such as albatrosses and eagles -- have been mysterious and intriguing for biologists, physicists, aeronautical/control engineers, and applied mathematicians. These fascinating biological organisms have the…
Cephalopod pulsed-jet locomotion is not a single isolated expulsion event, but a coordinated cycle involving jet expulsion, passive gliding, and mantle refilling. Inspired by this cycle-resolved biological strategy, this paper presents a…
Reorientation (turning in plane) plays a critical role for all robots in any field application, especially those that in confined spaces. While important, reorientation remains a relatively unstudied problem for robots, including limbless…
Upon illumination by ultraviolet light, many animal species emit light through fluorescence processes arising from fluorophores embedded within their biological tissues. Fluorescence studies in living organisms are however relatively scarce…
Aerial robots show significant potential for forest canopy research and environmental monitoring by providing data collection capabilities at high spatial and temporal resolutions. However, limited flight endurance hinders their…
In this work, we have performed numerical simulations of the flapping motion of a rectangular wing in a three-dimensional flow field using the discrete vortex method (DVM). The DVM method is computationally more convenient because it does…
Minimising the energy consumption associated with periodic motion is a priority common to a wide range of technologies and organisms - among them, many species of flying insect, for which flapping-wing flight is a life-essential mode of…
The albatross optimized flight maneuver -- known as dynamic soaring -- is nothing but a wonder of biology, physics, and engineering. By utilizing dynamic soaring, the bird can travel in the desired flight direction almost for free by…
We formulate a kinetic theory of two species of hard spheres undergoing reactive collisions that convert chemical energy into kinetic energy. The model describes an active species interacting with a passive background, labeled as birds and…
High-velocity dynamic actions (e.g., fling or throw) play a crucial role in our everyday interaction with deformable objects by improving our efficiency and effectively expanding our physical reach range. Yet, most prior works have tackled…