2022 Annual Report 2022 | Page 40

FIRST BATS FLY THROUGH VIRGINIA TECH ’ S NEW BAT CAVE IN BRUNEI

Virginia Tech Professor Rolf Mueller started a journey to record the movements of bats in Brunei nearly three years ago . Now , having overcome multiple delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic , he has a working motion capture tunnel for both live bats and robots that copy their flight .
With an array of high-speed cameras and ultrasonic microphones , the tunnel ’ s technology captures the motion and biosonar pulses of the flying bats . By observing and recording this information , the researchers will form a more complete picture of what bat flight looks like down to the smallest movement and how sound and motion come together to enable their deft aerial maneuvers .
The plan had always been to build the tunnel in the United States , then disassemble and ship it to the small equatorial country of Brunei , capitalizing on the country ’ s diverse and abundant bat population . Many moving parts were synchronized to make this happen . This included the completion of a frame design from a senior design team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a commitment of funding , facilities , and collaborators from the University of Brunei Darussalam ( UBD ), the national flagship university of Brunei .
That flight tunnel was originally slated to be deployed in the spring of 2020 , but restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic put the research in the dark for a short time . International freight became impossible , and in-person work restrictions meant that the team could do little more than meet virtually . Mueller ’ s team still found ways to work in this blackout period , just like their winged subjects make hairpin turns as they navigate the night sky .
The senior design team had done some preliminary design on the tunnel prior to the COVID restrictions , and its members continued working remotely to deliver a set of plans that could be assembled as soon as in-person work was possible . The seniors graduated in May 2020 ; however , Mueller gathered a small team of undergraduate and graduate students to pick up those plans and carry them to fruition .
The tunnel finally shipped out in late 2021 and arrived in Brunei in January 2022 . A team of 10 students from the
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