IRES: US-China Collaboration: Bats as Model Organisms for Bioinspired Engineering

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Bats are capable of swift, autonomous navigation through complex, natural environments - a feat that cannot be replicated by engineers at present. The central hypothesis behind this research is that system-level synergies between sensing, mobility, and control functions are critical factors behind achieving these unmatched capabilities of bats. To understand how these system-level synergies arise in nature, participating students will be advised by faculty teams spanning six departments to conduct interdisciplinary research projects centered on one of the following topics: acoustical scene statistics of natural bat habitats, dynamic biosonar sensing, maneuvering flight, neural control, physiological basis of sound emission and reception. All student projects will be based in the Shandong University - Virginia Tech International Laboratory in China. The educational outcomes of the project will be undergraduate and graduate students with interdisciplinary skills between biology and engineering that will allow them to interpret biological functions from an engineering perspective and within their respective biological contexts. Furthermore, the IRES trainees will acquire intercultural competencies to work effectively in international teams. The project's scientific outcomes will enable engineers to design better integrated autonomous systems, e.g., self-navigating drones, that will have bat-like capabilities to deal with natural, unconstrained environments, such dense vegetation.