The pursuit of Hawks' prey has implications for the capture of rogue drones

Previous research has shown that hawks intercept their prey using the same orientation law as homing missiles, called proportional navigation. This law of orientation is optimal against the air targets with smooth maneuvers, but it is likely to be destabilized by the maneuvers by zigzagging of terrestrial preys such as hares or jackrabbits, and will not necessarily lead to a practicable flight path through congested and frequent habitats.

Oxford University researchers, Caroline Brighton and Graham Taylor, used high-speed cameras to capture the flight trajectories of five Harris Hawks bred in captivity during 50 flights against an artificial target to erratic maneuvers.

Dr. Brighton said, "We filmed our flying hawks after a dummy rabbit, an artificial target that we towed at high speed around a series of pulleys arranged in such a way as to create an unpredictable course. video reconstruction to measure the three-dimensional trajectory of the falcon and its target, we then proceeded to a computer simulation to see how much the hawk's attack behavior was modeled by different types of laws of orientation. "

The researchers found that the Harris Hawks use a mixed orientation law, in which their rate of turn is determined by returning information on the angle between the direction relative to their target and their direction of flight current, as well as information on the rate of direction. their target is changing. The researchers argue that this mixed orientation law reduces the risk of overshooting in the close-up activities to which hawks are adapted, but would produce an inefficient flight path if it was used in long-range interception behaviors of the hawks. falcons.

The results have applications in the design of drones to track and capture undesirable drones in congested environments.

Professor Taylor said: "Last year's Gatwick incident showed how far we are from being able to quickly and safely remove rogue drones from a vast open space, not to mention airspace. Cluttered with an urban environment.The Hawks are masters of the close pursuit by the clutter, so we think that they have something to learn about designing a new type of drone that can chase another safely. "

"The Hawks direct their attacks with the help of a guidance system suitable for close pursuit of erratically maneuvering objectives" is published in Nature Communications newspaper.