Meeting Abstract
Flying snakes (genus: Chrysopelea) glide using unique morphological and behavioral adaptations to generate lift while undulating in the air. After a jumping take-off, flying snakes pass through a ballistic phase, and as speed increases, the trajectory becomes increasingly shallow. The orientation of the snake’s body changes throughout a glide, subjecting the snake to a continuously shifting balance of forces and torques. Understanding how aerodynamic and inertial forces influence gliding requires a precise knowledge of body orientation, but we lack an understanding of the snake’s complete body posture in the shallowing phase of the trajectory. To address this problem, we built an array of 23 cameras (Hero 4 Black and Silver, GoPro), which were synchronized using custom electronics (MewPro Illiad, Orangkucing Lab). Chrysopelea snakes launched from a mechanical lift (600AJ, JLG) from heights greater than 13 m. The camera array was positioned to capture the late portion of the snake’s trajectory near landing, representing the shallowing phase of the glide. White marks painted along the dorsal surface of the snake enabled post-hoc photogrammetric reconstruction of body landmarks using Argus software. For each trial in which the snake passed through the field of view of the array, a calibration was conducted using a ~1 m wand. Results from this study will be used to inform future computational fluid dynamics modeling of the snake to test hypotheses of morphology, posture, and movement on force generation and stability in gliding. Funded by NSF 1351322 to J.J.S.
