Meeting Abstract

87.2  Wednesday, Jan. 7  Bookstein coordinate-based shape analysis of bat wing kinematics CHEN, Jian*; RISKIN, Daniel K.; BREUER, Kenneth S.; SWARTZ, Sharon M.; LAIDLAW, David H.; Brown University; Brown University; Brown University; Brown University; Brown University jchen@cs.brown.edu

Bats are known to fly with amazing maneuverability and agility, in part because of their unique aeromechanical features such as highly elastic wing membranes and deforming wing bones. However, the details of how the wing membrane changes shape during flight are poorly understood, including the relative importance of distinct portions of the wing. This work quantifies changing wing morphology during five flights from each of six species of pteropodid bats using Bookstein’s coordinate-based measurement. We acquired three-dimensional wing motions by tracking the positions of seventeen anatomical markers on the wing and body. We then partitioned the wing into eighteen triangles distributed across distinct anatomical regions: the propatagium, the proximal and distal plagiopatagium, and the dactylopatagium. We found that the subareas of the dactylopatagium exhibited smaller shape variances compared to the propatagia. The smallest shape changes occurred close to the wrist in the dactylopataguim region. The largest change in wing shape occurred in the middle part of wing, in the plagiopatagium . These results suggest that we should attend to the most extensible region while analyzing the wing.