Flight in nature II: How animal flyers land

Abstract

In this review paper, different landing strategies of diverse species of animal flyers and gliders, both extinct and extant, are analysed. These methods vary depending on the animal group and the sensory system used by the animal to detect its landing site. In almost all species the use of delayed stall during the landing manoeuvre was observed. Sometimes wing flapping was used to aid in deceleration. With respect to guidance and navigation, most insect, bird and mammal gliders use their vision to guide them to landing via optical flow or motion parallax. Bats, which are nocturnal creatures, rely on their auditory system as they use echolocation to find their nesting site. Some butterfly and moth species guide themselves to landing using their olfactory sense as they follow pheromone trails. The information presented here can be used as a source of information for novel bio-inspired unmanned aircraft design.

What goes up must come down Biomechanical impact analysis of jumping locusts

“…The biomechanics of the takeoff before flight and jump have been well studied across a variety 255 of different insect species (Manzanera and Smith, 2015). Various sophisticated mechanisms and structural adaptations have been shown to allow for example efficient energy storage, highly synchronized leg movement and detachment from the surface (Christian, 1978;Rothschild et al, 1972;Sutton and Burrows, 2011).…”

“…In general, flight and jumping movements can be subdivided into three major phases: take-off, aerial phase and landing. However, whilst landing after flight is mostly a predictable movement which is actively controlled by the insect (Borst, 1986;Manzanera and Smith, 2015), landing 30 after a jumping movement has additional challenges. Although the initial trajectory of the takeoff and even the orientation of the body might be controlled by several jumping insect species (Alexander, 1995;Faisal and Matheson, 2001;Heitler, 1974;Rothschild et al, 1972;Sutton andBurrows, 2008, 2011), external factors such as gusts of wind or unforeseen obstacles make it extremely difficult to reliably predict the mechanical properties of the landing site 35 (Bennet-Clark and Alder, 1979).…”

Bioinspired design of a landing system with soft shock absorbers for autonomous aerial robots

“…The study of natural systems revealed that evolutionary adaptation enables objects and processes in nature to be highly effective and robust (Bhushan, ; Kovač, ). While the natural world evolves, its processes provides an extensive source of inspiration for creating comprehensive models of artificial systems that can mimic certain functions of their counterparts in nature (Manzanera & Smith, ). The bioinspired design paradigm (Kovač, ) and perching principles (Liu, Ravi, Kolomenskiy, & Tanaka, ; Roderick, Cutkosky, & Lentink, ) provide cross‐disciplinary approaches to developing new devices by mimicking the natural world in the way of adopting concepts and principles in nature to solve engineering challenges.…”

“…Here we briefly review the functions of legs in selected examples of animal flyers, from insects, birds, and mammals, as illustrated in the ascending order of size in Figure . More detailed reviews of landing strategies in the animal kingdom can be found in literature (Altenbach, ; Carruthers, Taylor, Walker, & Thomas, ; Carruthers, Thomas, & Taylor, ; Evangelista, Kraft, Dacke, Reinhard & Srinivasan, ; Kovač, ; Manzanera & Smith, ).…”

“…F I G U R E 3 Computer restructured key frames of animal flyers (Manzanera & Smith, 2015) during alighting maneuvers and abstracted landing methods, including leg mechanisms and sensor systems adopted by representative living species of insects, mammals, and birds. The first row illustrates the sequence of leg movements during the transition from hover to land of the honey bee (Evangelista et al, 2010); the second row shows the elbow extension, thumb touchdown, and dorsolateral bending during the short quadrupedal drop of vampire bats (Altenbach, 1979); the last row shows the legs of an eagle extending forward, and the fully stretched configuration before the final short bipedal drop [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] 1 The Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) is an international robotics competition, which aims to provide an environment that harbors innovation and technical excellence, while encouraging spectacular performance with robotics technologies.…”