Flying Insects and Robots
Flying insects are intelligent micromachines capable of exquisite maneuvers in unpredictable environments. Understanding these systems advances our knowledge of flight control, sensor suites, and unsteady aerodynamics, which is of crucial interest to engi
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Dario Floreano · Jean-Christophe Zufferey · Mandyam V. Srinivasan · Charlie Ellington
Editors
Flying Insects and Robots
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Editors Prof. Dario Floreano Director, Laboratory of Intelligent Systems EPFL-STI-IMT-LIS École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ELE 138 1015 Lausanne Switzerland [email protected]
Dr. Jean-Christophe Zufferey Laboratory of Intelligent Systems EPFL-STI-IMT-LIS École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ELE 115 1015 Lausanne Switzerland [email protected]
Prof. Mandyam V. Srinivasan Visual and Sensory Neuroscience Queensland Brain Institute University of Queensland QBI Building (79) St. Lucia, QLD 4072 Australia [email protected]
Prof. Charlie Ellington Animal Flight Group Dept. of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge, CB2 3EJ UK [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-540-89392-9 e-ISBN 978-3-540-89393-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-89393-6 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009926857 ACM Computing Classification (1998): I.2.9, I.2.10, I.2.11 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover illustration: Flying insect image reproduced with permission of Mondolithic Studios Inc. Cover design: KünkelLopka, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Flying insects represent a fascinating example of evolutionary design at the microscopic scale. Their diminutive size does not prevent them from perceiving the world, flying, walking, jumping, chasing, escaping, living in societies, and even finding their way home at the end of a long day. Their size and energy constraints demand extremely efficient and specialized solutions, which are often very different from those that we are accustomed to seeing in larger animals. For example, the visual system of flying insects, which features a compound eye comprising thousands of ommatidia – “little eyes” – represents a dramatic alternative to the design of our own eyes, which we share with all vertebrates and which has driven the design of today’s cameras. Do insect eyes differ from human eyes only superficially with respect to the optical and imaging chara
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