Meeting Abstract
Flying animals must skillfully navigate and respond to turbulence from other flyers, discrete perturbations such as gusts of wind, and complex flows that arise from air movement around static structures to safely travel, forage, and migrate. Bats may accomplish this task differently from other flyers because their wings are notably heavier. By coopting the many bones and muscles of the hand, arm, and hindlimb for the skeletal framework of the wing, the wings comprise nearly 30% of total body mass in Carollia perspicillata. Theoretically, through rapid and asymmetrical modulation of their relatively heavy wings, bats can use wing inertia to perform complex aerial maneuvers without generating aerodynamic force. To record the kinematics of a perturbation response and to explore the importance of wing inertia during recovery from a gust-induced aerial stumble, we trained several C. perspicillata to fly through a window that placed them in the path of a gust of wind from above. A synchronized array of six high-speed cameras recorded both the perturbation and the subsequent wingbeats required to restore flight to that resembling control, unperturbed trials. We performed detailed analysis of kinematics of the body and wings during the perturbation and response. We then explored the relative contributions of wing inertia and external forces to body reorientation. To recover from perturbations that induced body roll, bats flapped their wings asymmetrically and were able to rapidly reorient their bodies within two wingbeats. Our findings suggest that through asymmetrical flapping flight, bats may use wing inertia to recover from perturbations and improve flight stability.
