
Hawk guidance system tuned for close pursuit of erratically maneuvering targets - bookofjoe
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10454-z
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alanbernstein
I participated in an interactive falconry demonstration, using a Harris hawk.
These creatures can maneuver with incredible precision in extremely tight
spaces. It's not surprising to me to see their behavior described like this,
with terms from modern control theory.

Watch this, for example:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HYGz32iv1vw](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HYGz32iv1vw)

They can fly through spaces barely wider than their body (pulling their wings
in as tightly as necessary, then immediately unfolding them to continue
flying), over a wide range of pitch/roll, while following a curved trajectory,
while pursuing prey.

Can you imagine writing software to do that?

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theoh
To describe the article as an application of modern control theory is an
exaggeration; these rules (proportional navigation and proportional pursuit)
are extremely simple and ancient. It's difficult to imagine a time when humans
didn't intuitively understand the law described in the paper as proportional
pursuit, and the idea behind proportional navigation predates guided missiles
by hundreds if not thousands of years.

It's a relief that the heavy mathematical prerequisites of optimal control
theory aren't needed to understand what the birds do.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_navigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_navigation)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_bearing,_decreasing_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_bearing,_decreasing_range)

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alanbernstein
I hesitated to use that term, I know it isn't quite appropriate. I'm still not
exactly sure how better to phrase it.

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GarvielLoken
Anyone else that plays wargame red dragon and thought this was gonna be about
the MIM-23 Hawk Anti-Air system? I mean common, guidance system usually refers
to machines not living beings.

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alecmg
I was certain to find an article about anti-air missiles as well

