The Rockefeller University » Navigating turbulent environments

Event Details

Type: Center for Studies in Physics and Biology Seminars
Speaker(s): Massimo Vergassola, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, San Diego
Open to: Public
Contact: Melanie Lee
Phone: (212) 327-8636
Sponsor: Melanie Lee
(212) 327-8636
leem@rockefeller.edu
Notes: Thermal soaring by birds and olfactory searches by insects are biological examples of navigation in the presence of orientation cues that are complex due to the physics of fluids. The two problems also have technological applications, namely for extending the autonomy of flying vehicles/gliders, and for the development of olfactory robots. I shall first review the animal behavior, then present the physics of the orientation cues, and finally discuss the corresponding navigation problems.

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