A Practical Model for Realistic Butterfly Flight Simulation

Abstract

Butterflies are not only ubiquitous around the world but are also widely known for inspiring thrill resonance, with their elegant and peculiar flights. However, realistically modeling and simulating butterfly flights—in particular, for real-time graphics and animation applications—remains an under-explored problem. In this article, we propose an efficient and practical model to simulate butterfly flights. We first model a butterfly with parametric maneuvering functions, including wing-abdomen interaction. Then, we simulate dynamic maneuvering control of the butterfly through our force-based model, which includes both the aerodynamics force and the vortex force. Through many simulation experiments and comparisons, we demonstrate that our method can efficiently simulate realistic butterfly flight motions in various real-world settings.