Müller says his aspiration in teaching is to bridge the gap between disciplines, especially between biology and engineering. In the past, the lab was used by an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the University of Utah, North Carolina State University, and University of California Los Angeles to conduct experiments on the extraordinary capabilities of bats to generate high-powered ultrasonic pulses. The new laboratory focuses on bio-inspired research. The collaboration between Shandong University and Virginia Tech started with Müller's opening of a new international laboratory based at the Chinese facility in 2010. The National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shandong University, the Shandong Taishan Fund, and the China Scholarship Council supported the most recent work. That study provided key insights into the various shapes of bat ears among the different species, and illustrated how the differences could affect how their navigation systems worked. The research piggybacks earlier work led by Müller and reported this spring in the Institute of Physics' journal Bioinspiration & Biometrics. Hence, the ear deformation in horseshoe bats could be a substrate for adapting the spatial hearing of the animals on a very short time scale. Using computer analysis of the deforming shapes, the researchers found that the ultrasonic hearing spotlights associated with the different ear configurations could suit different hearing tasks performed by the animals. Using a combination of methods that included high-speed stereo vision and high-resolution tomography, the researchers from Virginia Tech and Shandong University have been able to reconstruct the 3-D geometries of the outer ears from live horseshoe bats as they deform in these short time intervals.
Horseshoe bats, in particular, can use their sonar systems to maneuver swiftly through dense vegetation and identify insect prey under difficult conditions.Īcting as biosonar receiving antennas, the ears of bats perform a critical function in bringing about these ultrasonic sensing capabilities. By emitting ultrasonic pulses and listening to the returning echoes, the animals are able to obtain detailed information on their surroundings. As a result of these shape changes, the shape of the animals' spatial hearing sensitivity also undergoes a qualitative change," Müller added.īats are flying mammals most well known for their abilities to navigate and pursue their prey in complete darkness. Müller, who directs the Bio-Inspired Technology Laboratory at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, Va., explained the significance of their work, saying, "In about 100 milliseconds, this type of bat can alter his ear shape significantly in ways that would suit different acoustic sensing tasks."īy comparison, "A human blink of an eye takes two to three times as long. student with Müller and Sreenath Balakrishnan of Thrissur, Kerala and a master's candidate with Virginia Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering as well as Weikai He and Zhen Yan both of Shandong, China in the School of Physics at Shandong University. The students are: Li Gao of Shandong, China, and a Ph.D. Müller and his students wrote a paper on their work that is scheduled to appear this week in the Physical Review Letters, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal of the American Physical Society. Within just one-tenth of a second, these bats are able to change their outer ear shapes from one extreme configuration to another," said Rolf Müller, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. "Certain bats can deform the shapes of their ears in a way that changes the animal's ultrasonic hearing pattern.
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