Inertial coupling of the hummingbird body in the flight mechanics of an escape manoeuvre.

Abstract

When a hovering hummingbird performs a rapid escape manoeuvre in response to a perceived threat from the front side, its body may go through simultaneous pitch, yaw and roll rotations. In this study, we examined the inertial coupling of the three-axis body rotations and its effect on the flight mechanics of the manoeuvre using analyses of high-speed videos as well as high-fidelity computational modelling of the aerodynamics and inertial forces. We found that while a bird's pitch-up was occurring, inertial coupling between yaw and roll helped slow down and terminate the pitch, thus serving as a passive control mechanism for the manoeuvre. Furthermore, an inertial coupling between pitch-up and roll can help accelerate yaw before the roll-yaw coupling. Different from the aerodynamic mechanisms that aircraft and animal flyers typically rely on for flight control, we hypothesize that inertial coupling is a built-in mechanism in the flight mechanics of hummingbirds that helps them achieve superb aerial agility.