The locust is tethered to a support on the platform. The recording electrodes pick up electrical impulses in the muscles when they are activated by the locust to contract. While flying, locusts steer by asynchronously activating the left and right muscles . This changes the timing of the left and right downstroke which changes the left-right balance of aerodynamic forces.
Locusts are large insects native to equatorial regions of Africa and Asia.
Locusts are most often noted for the damage they cause to crops when they aggregate into large swarms. Less well know is that because they are such excellent fliers and have an accessible nervous system, they are also used frequently by scientists interested in insect flight. We believe that bats, which use ultrasound to hunt, eat locusts. I got the idea to build M.E.L. when my good friend John Dower FAXed me a photocopy of a Discover Magazine article about Steve Bathiche and his Mothmobile. Bathiche modified a remote controlled car so that activity from hawkmoth flight muscles would cause it to go forward and a harness around the moth controlled the steering.