Experimental results from insect biology suggest that in flies visual cues provide important information for spatial orientation and flight control. Götz [1] suggested a model that uses visual motion detection for course and altitude stabilisation. Similar models can be used to explain obstacle avoidance behavior. Huber, Mallot and Bülthoff [4] demonstrated that these biological principles can ...

The flexibility of behavior is so rich, and its components are so exquisitely interwoven, that one may be well advised to turn to an isolated behavioral module for study. Gill withdrawal in Aplysia, the proboscis extension reflex in the honeybee, and lid closure in mammals are such examples. We have chosen yawing, a single component of flight orientation in Drosophila melanogaster, for this app...

For city planning and security services the combination of vertical and oblique images like from Pictometry and Multivision recently became very popular. For larger cities a high number of such image combinations are even included in Microsoft Virtual Earth. The geo-reference of the image combinations usually is based on direct sensor orientation – the combination of GPS and inertial measuremen...

ABSTR•CT.--Nocturnal autumn passerine migrants are frequently drifted by wind or carried by downwind flight from New England to offshore islands. Most individuals in these flights are immatures. Many recover the mainland via reoriented northward flights. During fall 1972, I made field observations and performed orientation cage tests on nocturnal migrants on Block Island, Rhode Island. Migrants...

Orientation experiments were performed with first-year snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) during their autumn migration in a natural near-vertical geomagnetic field approximately 400 km away from the magnetic north pole. Migratory orientation of snow buntings was recorded using two different techniques: orientation cage tests and free-flight release experiments. Experiments were performed un...

The orientation of Listing's Plane (LP) was examined under one-g and zero-g conditions during parabolic flight. Ten healthy subjects participated in the experiment. In zero-g the orientation of LP was consistently altered. LP elevation was tilted backwards by approx. 10 degrees (p=0.003). The azimuth angles of the left and right eyes also diverged in zero-g, with a statistically significant cha...

While the ultrastructure of the myelin has been considered to be a quasi-crystalline stable system, nowadays its multiscale complex dynamics appears to play a key role for its functionality, degeneration and repair processes following neurological diseases and trauma. In this work, we have investigated the interactions between axons associated to the nerve functionality, measuring the spatial d...

BACKGROUND An animal's behavioral strategies are often constrained by its evolutionary history and the resources available to it. Artificial evolution allows one to manipulate such constraints and explore how they influence evolved strategies. Here we compare the navigational strategies of flying insects with those of artificially evolved "animats" endowed with various motor architectures. Usin...