Goyal P, van Leeuwen JL, Muijres FT. Bumblebees land rapidly by intermittently accelerating and decelerating toward the surface during visually guided landings.
iScience 2022;
25:104265. [PMID:
35521517 PMCID:
PMC9065724 DOI:
10.1016/j.isci.2022.104265]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Revised: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many flying animals parse visual information to control their landing, whereby they can decelerate smoothly by flying at a constant radial optic expansion rate. Here, we studied how bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) use optic expansion information to control their landing, by analyzing 10,005 landing maneuvers on vertical platforms with various optic information, and at three dim light conditions. We showed that bumblebees both decelerate and accelerate during these landings. Bumblebees decelerate by flying at a constant optic expansion rate, but they mostly accelerate toward the surface each time they switched to a new, often higher, optic expansion rate set-point. These transient acceleration phases allow bumblebees to increase their approach speed, and thereby land rapidly and robustly, even in dim twilight conditions. This helps explain why bumblebees are such robust foragers in challenging environmental conditions. The here-proposed sensorimotor landing control system can serve as bio-inspiration for landing control in unmanned aerial vehicles.
Bumblebees land by intermittently decelerating and accelerating toward a surface
Acceleration and deceleration phases result from a single visual-motor controller
The accelerations toward the surface allow bees to maximize their landing speed
Bumblebees adjust their sensorimotor control response to fly slower in dim light
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