Abstract
Similar flight control principles operate across insect and vertebrate fliers. These principles indicate that robust solutions have evolved to meet complex behavioral challenges. Following from studies of visual and cervical feedback control of flight in insects, we investigate the role of head stabilization in providing feedback cues for controlling turning flight in pigeons. Based on previous observations that the eyes of pigeons remain at relatively fixed orientations within the head during flight, we test potential sensory control inputs derived from head and body movements during 90° aerial turns. We observe that periods of angular head stabilization alternate with rapid head repositioning movements (head saccades), and confirm that control of head motion is decoupled from aerodynamic and inertial forces acting on the bird's continuously rotating body during turning flapping flight. Visual cues inferred from head saccades correlate with changes in flight trajectory; whereas the magnitude of neck bending predicts angular changes in body position. The control of head motion to stabilize a pigeon's gaze may therefore facilitate extraction of important motion cues, in addition to offering mechanisms for controlling body and wing movements. Strong similarities between the sensory flight control of birds and insects may also inspire novel designs of robust controllers for human-engineered autonomous aerial vehicles.
Highlights
The ability to maneuver, turn, and maintain stable flight has been critical to the evolutionary diversification and success of flying animals
Periods of angular head stabilization were interrupted by brief head repositioning movements, or saccades, lasting 17.6 ± 6.1 % of the wingbeat period and occurring in nearly two-thirds (63 ± 7 %) of the turning wingbeats (Video S2)
These angular head saccades were characterized by step-wise changes in horizontal gaze (Figure 4C)
Summary
The ability to maneuver, turn, and maintain stable flight has been critical to the evolutionary diversification and success of flying animals. Such aerial maneuverability requires rapid sensory integration with motor control of the wings, body, and tail. The mechanisms by which sensory input is coupled to motor output for maneuvering flight in birds has been understudied compared to studies of avian functional anatomy, neural organization and sensory neurophysiology (for review, see Zeigler and Bischof, 1993). By confining visual motion induced by self-rotation, or angular optic flow, to these rapid turns, a flying animal’s course, speed, and distance information can be more extracted from translational optic flow that occurs during
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