Impact of flight trajectory on the detection and selection of flowers by nectar-feeding bats

Abstract

Echolocating mammals, such as bats, have evolved an excellent ability to detect, select and identify the targets they depend on for their survival by echolocation even in the most challenging environments. They simultaneously adapt their trajectory and diversify transmission parameters such as waveform, bandwidth and time duration, to obtain high level detection and classification performance that is far better than that obtained by modern radar and sonar systems. This paper exploits the information available to the bat along its in-flight trajectory aiming at assessing the impact of choosing the right trajectory on detection and classification performance. A set of experimental data consisting of HRRPs of one inflorescence of Rhytidophyllum auriculatum is analysed and results are discussed and related to the case of radar and sonar systems.