Peregrine Falcon Attack Trajectories Modeled with Missile Guidance Law

Featuring GPS and video data from peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) attacking stationary targets, maneuvering targets, and live prey. The trajectories are modeled using system identification techniques, fitting them to the proportional navigation (PN) guidance law used by guided missiles, with a median navigation constant N < 3.

Use Cases

• Fit proportional navigation guidance law models to falcon attack trajectory data to estimate navigation constants (N).
• Compare attack trajectories against stationary targets, maneuvering targets, and live prey to analyze behavioral differences.
• Analyze the relationship between flight speed and fitted navigation constants (N) in biological pursuit systems.
• Use system identification techniques on the trajectory data to validate phenomenological models of animal pursuit dynamics.

Strengths

• Data includes attacks on three distinct target types: stationary, maneuvering, and live prey.
• Trajectories are modeled with the proportional navigation guidance law, a well-established missile guidance framework.
• The study provides a specific finding: peregrine trajectories are best fitted by navigation constants (N) with a median below 3.

Limitations

• The specific number of recorded attack trajectories (rows) and measured variables (columns) is not provided.
• Data collection methods (GPS loggers, video) may introduce measurement error or gaps in trajectory reconstruction.
• The dataset's focus on peregrine falcons may limit generalizability to other predatory bird species or pursuit systems.

Provenance

Source

Dryad, authored by Caroline H. Brighton.

Collection Method

Collected using GPS loggers and onboard video cameras on peregrine falcons.

Freshness

Last updated in June 2020.