EAPSI: How Bats Drink While Flying: Lessons for the Design of a Water Skimming Air Vehicle

Gart Sean W, Salem VA

Investigators

Abstract

Many bats hunt prey over bodies of water. During this high-energy hunting activity they hydrate themselves by swooping down to the water surface and dragging their tongue across the surface to splash water into the mouth all while maintaining flight stability. This drinking while flying behavior is unique in nature and could give insight into the design of an air vehicle capable of quickly sampling large bodies of water. To study this behavior bats will be filmed while drinking in a lab with an array of high-speed cameras. Experiments will be conducted at the Shandong University ? Virginia Tech International Laboratory in Jinan, China in collaboration with Dr. Rolf Mueller, an expert in bat physiological form and function and bat biosonar systems. The kinematics and fluid dynamics of bat drinking are unparalleled in nature and have not been investigated as of yet. Biological experiments in a laboratory setting will be performed to characterize drinking parameters like the angle of attack, velocity, head and body position, and tongue movement of the bats while they drink. From the fluid dynamics perspective, understanding the interplay between the air/water interface and mouth/tongue is essential. The nature of the splash and how much water is transported into the mouth will be characterized using a high-speed camera array. The goal of proposed experiments is to develop a physical framework of the distinctive bat drinking while flying behavior that could give insights into the design of a water-skimming air vehicle. This NSF EAPSI award supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.