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Where we work

Facilities

The CALI flight hall: a long bright room lined with white curtains and motion capture cameras. DURIP support from: DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

Flagship facility

Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation (CALI)

Purpose-built flight hall for studying animal locomotion and translating it into robotics and rehabilitation metrics.

Co-directed with Dr. Michelle Hawkins · California Raptor Center, UC Davis

Explore the CALI facility
Rendering of the wind tunnel: a blue intake narrowing into a silver test section, then a tube to the fan.
AI rendering based on real photos, to illustrate the setup.

UC Davis Aeronautical Wind Tunnel

Low-turbulence aerodynamic testing of airfoils, morphing wings, and bird-scale models.

Co-directed with Dr. Camli Badrya · UC Davis Bainer Hall

  • Force, moment & surface-pressure measurement
  • Particle Image Velocimetry
  • Gust & dynamic-inflow testing
  • Bird-scale speeds and force/torque measurements

Equipment

Test section 4 × 2.8 × 12 ft (W × H × L)5-165 mph (2.2–73.8 m/s)
Flow quality Turbulence below 0.1%Angularity within ±0.2°, velocity uniformity ±0.75% across the interior 80%
Forces AEROLAB external balance — lift ±300 lb, drag ±50 lb, side force ±150 lb, moments to ±70 ft·lbATI Mini40 six-axis — Fx, Fy ±80 N, Fz ±240 N, torques ±4 N·m
Model support Two 36-in floor turntables with 3 DOF model positioning, α ±35°, β ±45°
Pressures 32-channel PSI ESP-32HD scanner, 625 scans/s, expandable to 256 channels
PIV 2D-2C Laser: Dual-cavity Nd:YAG laser — 200 mJ/pulse, 532 nm, 15 HzCamera: FlowSense FCX 5M-260 — 5 MP at 262 fps
Wake & drag Automated two-axis traverseMomentum-deficit drag to 1–2% uncertainty
Unsteady Programmable speed ramps to 2.1 m/s² for gust-response and dynamic-inflow testing
Models In-house carbon-fiber-capable 3-D printing
Rendering of the specimen room: five motion capture cameras on tripods encircling a small round table with a laptop.
AI rendering based on real photos, to illustrate the setup.

Specimen-focused Motion Capture Room

High-resolution capture of specimens across their full range of motion.

UC Davis Bainer Hall

  • Specimen range-of-motion capture
  • Morphological measurement

Equipment

Motion capture 5 × OptiTrack Flex 13 — 1.3 MP (1280 × 1024), 120 fps, sub-0.5 mm tracking
Specimen storage 21 cu ft glass-door freezer, manual defrostStandard refrigerator

Interested in collaborating or visiting? Get in touch.