Villanova University reported that Engineering Professor Dr. Chengyu-Li has been awarded the NSF Career grant for studying odor-guided flapping flight, an important aspect of insects’ lives. 

Chengyu-Li is one of eight Villanova faculty members to have been given this award since 2017, and individually he has received a grant for $500,000.

“Odor-guided flapping flight is key to an insect’s survival,” said Li. “The flow physics underlying this odor-tracking behavior is still unclear due to insects’ small wing size, fast flapping motion, and the unpredictability of their flying trajectory.”

To the untrained individual, the study of insects’ survival may not seem important, but Li explained that it will help with the design of “bio-inspired flying robots.”

Odor-guided navigation is aided by flapping wings as they both generate lift and help to direct the scents through the proximate air of the insects’ path, making it easier for them to choose the correct path.

Li is hopeful that this study will help to further the navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles, especially in areas where GPS is not a viable option. It could specifically be helpful in surveillance and detection situations, as well as searching for survivors in natural disasters, drug trafficking and other similarly dangerous situations. 

“Using the resources of his Flow Simulation and Flow Physics Lab, Li aims to establish a physics-driven understanding of the odor-tracking flapping flight in nature and to unravel how insects balance aerodynamic performance with olfactory sensitivity,” Villanova reported. “More specifically, his research will test the hypothesis that the enhancement of the olfactory sensitivity during navigation can be achieved by regulating the odorant transport in unsteady wing-induced flow through modulating flapping locomotion.” 

Villanova is proud of its faculty and the work that they are doing to impact the world for the better across a wide range of studies.