Analyzing the complexity of bat flight to inspire the design of flapping-flight drones

With their exceptionally maneuverable flapping flight, bats could serve as a model for enhancing the flight abilities for future drones. However, bat flight is extremely complex and there are many engineering restrictions that prevent a flapping-flight drone from replicating the many degrees of freedoms present in biology. Hence, to make design choices of which properties in a bats wing kinematics should be reproduced, the present research has evaluated two metrics from information and complexity theory to identify which regions of the bat flight apparatus are most complex and where coupling across features of the bat flight kinematics exists. The values were the complexity metric as a measure of variability and mutual information as a measure of coupling. Both measures were applied to ten experimentally obtained digital models of the flight kinematics in Ridley's leaf-nosed bats as well as the simulated kinematics of a flapping-flight drone inspired by the same bat type. The pilot results obtained indicate that both measures could be useful to discover which elements of flight kinematics should be looked into for understanding and reproducing the maneuvering flight of bats. However, a functional interpretation will require complementary, e.g., aerodynamic metrics.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Tyler, Adam Anthony Murphrey

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Mueller, Rolf

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Leonessa, Alexander
• Abbott, Amos L.

• Bio inspired
• Robotics
• Information theory

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:41417

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/120993