Within the past decade, the unusual and potent mechanisms of lift production in insects and birds have attracted numerous researchers in the field of biological fluid dynamics. This research has revealed several novel aerodynamic mechanisms that boost lift production in animals owing to vortices attached to the wing’s leading edge, enhanced circulation owing to wing rotation and the recapture of kinetic wake. Tiny insects flap their wings at a Reynolds number of only approximately 10 or less and substantially differ from their larger relatives in terms of aerodynamics, functional morphology and presumably locomotor patterns. Although in most insects the airflow is in the laminar regime, viscous effects become progressively more important as size decreases. Thrips and their small relatives have thus been referred to as animals that rely on drag (like swimming animals) rather than on lift-based mechanisms for flight. However, in contrast to most microswimmers in water, all insects including tiny ones must compensate for gravity to remain airborne. The aerodynamic mechanisms allowing thrust/lift production during aerial swimming of thrips, fairy flies and feather-winged beetles has poorly been investigated and understood.

The project IFLORES aims to tackle the fluid dynamic processes of insect flight at extremely low Reynolds number, quantifying kinematic patterns of wing motion in tethered flying insects, visualizing and quantifying the flow in the wake and at wings of thrips, fairy flies or feather-winged beetles, and to physically model aerial swimming in a computerized robotic wing using nature-inspired wing motion in order to investigate the functional significance of bristles for aerodynamic performance.