Seabird trajectories map onto a reduced optimal-control bound for dynamic soaring
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866908967609827328 |
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| author | González, Louis Bhamla, Saad |
| author_facet | González, Louis Bhamla, Saad |
| contents | Dynamic soaring allows seabirds to harvest mechanical energy from vertical wind shear, but field trajectories lack a benchmark for comparing flight performances across species. We derive a reduced lower bound on transport effort from a simplified Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman optimal-control model in which slow flight incurs an induced-drag penalty, fast flight incurs a dissipative penalty, and wind shear supplies an effective energetic subsidy. After species-specific normalization of transport speed and an accelerometer-based effort proxy, we map wandering albatrosses, Cory's shearwaters, and Eurasian oystercatchers into a common reduced speed-effort plane and estimate their empirical lower frontiers. The albatross frontier lies closest to the reduced bound, consistent with near-optimal wind-energy harvesting. The shearwater frontier is systematically displaced above it, and oystercatchers occupy a distinct non-soaring regime. The resulting framework places specialist dynamic soaring, mixed flap-gliding, and non-soaring flight in a common mechanical representation and provides a reduced benchmark for comparing wind-assisted flight across species using field trajectories. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_14310 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Seabird trajectories map onto a reduced optimal-control bound for dynamic soaring González, Louis Bhamla, Saad Biological Physics Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability Dynamic soaring allows seabirds to harvest mechanical energy from vertical wind shear, but field trajectories lack a benchmark for comparing flight performances across species. We derive a reduced lower bound on transport effort from a simplified Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman optimal-control model in which slow flight incurs an induced-drag penalty, fast flight incurs a dissipative penalty, and wind shear supplies an effective energetic subsidy. After species-specific normalization of transport speed and an accelerometer-based effort proxy, we map wandering albatrosses, Cory's shearwaters, and Eurasian oystercatchers into a common reduced speed-effort plane and estimate their empirical lower frontiers. The albatross frontier lies closest to the reduced bound, consistent with near-optimal wind-energy harvesting. The shearwater frontier is systematically displaced above it, and oystercatchers occupy a distinct non-soaring regime. The resulting framework places specialist dynamic soaring, mixed flap-gliding, and non-soaring flight in a common mechanical representation and provides a reduced benchmark for comparing wind-assisted flight across species using field trajectories. |
| title | Seabird trajectories map onto a reduced optimal-control bound for dynamic soaring |
| topic | Biological Physics Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14310 |