Meeting Abstract
Feathers are unparalleled structures optimized for flight. They stitch together to form aerodynamic wings that can morph and change shape, allowing birds to execute nimble maneuvers in flight. Exactly how feathers move relative to each other is not well known. To understand the orchestrated interaction between feathers and the musculoskeletal system, we corroborate a kinematic model by tracking feathers and skeletal motion of a racing pigeon wing with a motion capture camera system. We hypothesize that feather motion can be closely estimated by a passive model that achieves similar representative wing planforms observed in flight. With this model, we can further explore the group dynamics of the primary and secondary feathers as well as the effects of absent feathers, for example during molting. The findings also have implications for bio-inspired robot design.
