Dario Floreano’s Tiny Flyer Navigates Like a Fly:
A fly navigates using its large, compound eyes, which let it see almost an entire field of view at once. Their optic lobes contain motion-sensitive neurons that respond to images moving across the retinas.Those moving images, the so-called optic flow, combine data that the insect perceives as it flies straight, and data it senses from other motions such as turning, bobbing, or tilting side to side.
The visual data that comes as the insect is flying straight — for example, that a bookcase in its field of view is getting bigger — automatically contains information about the distance to that object.
In fact, flies tend to navigate in relatively straight lines until they get too close to an obstacle. Then they make a quick 90? turn away from the obstruction and continue flying straight again.
Flies also possess two organs, called halteres, which help them fly without flipping over.
Zufferey and his colleagues incorporated technology into their robot that mimics all of these things.