HOW DO FLIES USE HALTERES TO BALANCE?
Researchers have long known that when you surgically remove the halteres, a fly can take off but fails to balance in midair. Halteres are tiny structures that look like the second set of wings. How do halteres work?
A Ph.D. candidate in biology, Alexandra Yarger, from Case Western Reserve University published a report September 2018 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that sheds light on the operation of halteres. The study, which began in 2016, took her two to complete.
Yarger studies the electrical activity of neurons. She took over the operations of the neurons in the halteres by attaching by gluing a bit of metal to it.
By manipulating the halteres using a magnet, Yarger recorded the electrical signals generated. She discovered that the signals comprised a code sent to control the wing muscles, causing it to behave in a specific way.
Yerger confirmed J.W. Pringle's hypothesis, proposed in 1948 that the fly was able to balance by the way the neurons fire during flight. J.W Pringle was unable to test whether the neuron remained dormant when the fly was flying straight or changed the firing pattern, due to lack of appropriate technology at the time.
Yerger confirmed that J.W. Pringle was right. The discovery of the code that controls the fly's flight can help scientists to design better-balanced robots and drones. The possibilities for employing technology are endless.
A drone cannot balance at hover unless the thrust generated by each propeller is enough to offset the load. Also, there are problems if the frame that carries battery and electronics is not at the center, and when its distance from the propellers is not equal, or the motors are not identical.
Balancing a drone may also call for recalibrating the flight computer or adjusting flight trims. Researchers may use haltere-like systems in the future to solve the balancing problems, resulting in smaller and more efficient machines.
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