Mechanism of Flight Control in Insects

Flight Control in Bees

JENICO.J

RAGAV.N

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering & Technology
Karaikudi - 630004
jenico.kennedygmail.com ; 9894360571

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering & Technology
Karaikudi - 630004
ragav.tiger@gmail.com ; 9487708654

Bees are fascinating creatures whose flying capabilities have baffled scientists, physicists, engineers and the
like for several decades. Their ability to fly has defied all the theories and postulates of classical
aerodynamics. The wingspan of a bee is too small relative to the size of its body said the people of 20 th
century. They were wrong because the calculations they did was for a bee-size aero plane with fixed wings
not for bee with flexible wings. Only in the recent past have the scientists began to comprehend the
mechanisms behind the flight of bees and their complex wing motions with the aid of recent developments
in high-speed videography and tools for computational and mechanical modeling. This has allowed
researchers to make rapid progress in advancing our understanding of insect flight. These mechanical and
computational fluid dynamic models, combined with modern flow visualization techniques, have revealed
that the fluid dynamic phenomena underlying flapping flight are different from those of non-flapping, 2-D
wings on which most previous models were based. In particular, even at high angles of attack, a prominent
leading edge vortex remains stably attached on the insect wing and does not shed into an unsteady wake, as
would be expected from non-flapping 2-D wings. Its presence greatly enhances the forces generated by the
wing, thus enabling insects to hover or maneuver. In addition, flight forces are further enhanced by other
mechanisms acting during changes in angle of attack, especially at stroke reversal, the mutual interaction of
the two wings at dorsal stroke reversal or wingwake interactions following stroke reversal. This progress
has enabled the development of simple analytical and empirical models that allow us to calculate the
instantaneous forces on flapping insect wings more accurately than was previously possible. Further
research in this field could result in new and exciting multi-disciplinary collaborations between physicists
who seek to explain the phenomenon, biologists who seek to understand its relevance to insect physiology
and evolution, and engineers who are inspired to build micro-robotic insects using these principles. This
paper covers the basic physical principles underlying flapping flight in insects, results of recent experiments
concerning the aerodynamics of insect flight, as well as the different approaches used to model these
phenomena. These are some of the equations used for modeling.