Data from: Limitations of rotational manoeuvrability in insects and hummingbirds: evaluating the effects of neuro-biomechanical delays and muscle mechanical power

Flying animals ranging in size from fruit flies to hummingbirds are nimble fliers with remarkable rotational manoeuvrability. The degrees of manoeuvrability among these animals, however, are noticeably diverse and do not simply follow scaling rules of flight dynamics or muscle power capacity. As all manoeuvres emerge from the complex interactions of neural, physiological and biomechanical processes of an animal's flight control system, these processes give rise to multiple limiting factors that dictate the maximal manoeuvrability attainable by an animal. Here using functional models of an animal's flight control system, we investigate the effects of three such limiting factors, including neural and biomechanical (from limited flapping frequency) delays and muscle mechanical power, for two insect species and two hummingbird species, undergoing roll, pitch and yaw rotations. The results show that for animals with similar degree of manoeuvrability, for example, fruit flies and hummingbirds, the underlying limiting factors are different, as the manoeuvrability of fruit flies is only limited by neural delays and that of hummingbirds could be limited by all three factors. In addition, the manoeuvrability also appears to be the highest about the roll axis as it requires the least muscle mechanical power and can tolerate the largest neural delays.

体型覆盖果蝇（fruit flies）至蜂鸟（hummingbirds）区间的飞行动物，均为机动敏捷的优秀飞行者，拥有出色的旋转机动能力。然而，这类物种的机动能力水平存在显著差异，且并不单纯遵循飞行动力学或肌肉功率容量的缩放规律。由于所有机动动作均源自动物飞行控制系统中神经、生理与生物力学过程的复杂交互作用，这些过程衍生出多种限制因素，决定了单种动物所能达到的最大机动能力。本研究借助动物飞行控制系统的功能模型，针对两种昆虫与两种蜂鸟物种在滚转（roll）、俯仰（pitch）、偏航（yaw）旋转场景下的机动表现，探究三类核心限制因素的影响：包括神经与生物力学（源于有限扑翼频率）延迟，以及肌肉机械功率。研究结果表明，对于机动能力水平相近的物种（如果蝇与蜂鸟），其背后的限制因素却存在差异：果蝇的机动能力仅受神经延迟限制，而蜂鸟的机动能力则可能受全部三类因素制约。此外，绕滚转轴的机动能力似乎最高，因为该轴机动所需的肌肉机械功率最低，且可耐受的神经延迟幅度最大。