Researchers built a wind tunnel for flies with scenes projected on the interior walls. The fly's motion is tracked with a 3D camera and the images change in response. By changing the patterns on the tunnel's walls, the scientists can control the untethered fly's movements. According to an article and video at New Scientist, understanding the complexities of insect flight could inform the development of new microrobotic aircraft. From New Scientist:
Previous setups have presented flies with changing images but involved tethering the fly and could not change the images in response to its movements. "That is very unnatural and it becomes very difficult to interpret the data because of the strong interference by the experimenter," explains (lead researcher Steven Fry from the Institute of Neuroinformatics, Zurich, Switzerland)…"This programme defines how the world reacts to the fly's behaviour," says Fry. "You gain access to information you just wouldn't get without the tools, because you can control a fly that is immersed in a virtual environment."
In future, the team plans to project more naturalistic patterns on the walls of the tunnel, to gain more detailed insights into how flies react to their environment.
