Hamburg  - German scientists have created a flight simulator for flies in order to gain insights into insect in-flight steering mechanisms which might one day enable robots to fly.

The German researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Munich say they are studying how flies see their environment and manage to make mid-air course changes with such ease and precision - avoiding being swatted, for example.

The brain researchers under the leadership of neurobiologist Dr Alexander Borst have created a blow-fly flight simulator which consists of a wraparound display onto which the researchers present diverse patterns, movements, and sensory stimuli to blow-flies.

The insect is held in place by a halter, so that electrodes can register the reactions of its brain cells. Thus the researchers observe and analyze what happens in a fly's brain when the animal whizzes in criss-cross flight around a room.

"During such recordings precisely defined moving visual patterns are presented to the fly's facet eyes," the German researchers write in their study, published online by the Max Planck Institute.

"Recently, such measurements allowed the first glance on neuronal information processing in identified visual interneurons in Drosophila (blow-flies). Fundamental response properties can be characterized and the link to computational models ... of visual motion detection and behaviour can be established in Drosophila," the researchers write.

"Key to such studies is the anatomical reconstruction of the underlying neural circuitry. This is done by using mostly genetic techniques and histochemistry to functionally characterize individual neurons and the ambient neural circuitry," they add.

The initial findings reveal that flies see the world very differently from the way humans see the world. Movements in space produce so-called "optical flux fields" that characterize specific kinds of motion definitively, the researchers explain.

To process this visual information, flies have specialized neurons called VS cells. In this way, the fly gets a precise fix on its position and movement.

"Through our results, the network of VS cells in the fly's brain responsible for rotational movement is one of the best understood circuits in the nervous system," Borst explains.

The discoveries of the neuroscientists are also of interest to robotics engineers associated with the academic chair for guidance and control at the Technical University of Munich with whom Borst is closely in collaboration.

The Munich researchers are developing small, flying robots whose position and movement in flight will be controlled by a computer system for visual analysis inspired by the example of the fly's brain.

One mobile robot, the Autonomous City Explorer (ACE) was challenged to find its way from the institute to Marienplatz at the heart of Munich by stopping passers-by and asking for directions.

To do this, ACE had to interpret the gestures of people who pointed the way, and it had to negotiate the sidewalks and traffic crossings safely. (dpa)