To conduct the study, the researchers dressed 20 common darter dragonflies with tiny magnets and motion tracking dots like those used to create CGI imagery. Drones tend to rely heavily on fast feedback to keep them upright and on course, but our findings could help engineers incorporate passive stability mechanisms into their wing structure." Senior author Dr Huai-Ti Lin, of Imperial's Department of Bioengineering, said: "Engineers could take inspiration from flying animals to improve aerial systems. The research reveals how the shape and joint stiffness of the dragonflies' wings provide passive stability and could inform designs for small drones. They also found that dragonflies perform the same righting maneuver whilst unconscious, suggesting the response has a large component of passive stability - a flight mechanism like that which lets planes glide when their engines are switched off. In a new study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Imperial College London researchers have found that unlike many animals documented to date, dragonflies most frequently perform upside down backflips, known as 'pitching', to right themselves from upside down positions in the air. Many land-based animals like cats, and aerial animals like hoverflies, rotate themselves around a head-to-tail axis when falling, known as 'rolling', but not much is known about how most insects right themselves from extreme orientations. Our colourful sunny-day companions can glide, fly backwards, and travel up to 54 km/h when hunting prey or escaping predators - but like any flying creature, they can be thrown off balance and even find themselves upside down. They could also help to inspire new designs in small aerial vehicles like drones, which can be useful for search-and-rescue attempts and building inspection. The findings add to current knowledge of how insects fly and keep stable in the air.
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