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Main Authors: Martini, Simone, Kunwar, Dipesh, Eisa, Sameh A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20232
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author Martini, Simone
Kunwar, Dipesh
Eisa, Sameh A.
author_facet Martini, Simone
Kunwar, Dipesh
Eisa, Sameh A.
contents In this letter, we reveal a universal, very simple extremum seeking natural feedback law and mechanism that governs, adapts, and generates in real-time, optimized lift variations for successful energy gain flight in presence of wind shear. The introduced law/mechanism, which is computationally minimal and needs only sensory information of the wind or local energy rate (i.e., model-free and data-driven) is able to characterize and replicate dynamic soaring optimized flight physics of windward climb in real-time for a variety of soaring birds species, namely wandering albatross, black-browed albatross and grey-headed albatross. We confirm the effectiveness of this new simple, real-time law by successful comparisons with sophisticated non-real-time optimal control solver and reported biological data. Our results establish the proposed mechanism as a new paradigm in soaring flight physics. That is, our results substantially advance the computational physics/biology aspects of the problem while providing a biologically plausible theory for avian soaring behavior.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_20232
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Universal Extremum Seeking Mechanism for Lift Variation in Soaring Birds Flight: A New Paradigm in Computational Physics and Biology
Martini, Simone
Kunwar, Dipesh
Eisa, Sameh A.
Biological Physics
Optimization and Control
In this letter, we reveal a universal, very simple extremum seeking natural feedback law and mechanism that governs, adapts, and generates in real-time, optimized lift variations for successful energy gain flight in presence of wind shear. The introduced law/mechanism, which is computationally minimal and needs only sensory information of the wind or local energy rate (i.e., model-free and data-driven) is able to characterize and replicate dynamic soaring optimized flight physics of windward climb in real-time for a variety of soaring birds species, namely wandering albatross, black-browed albatross and grey-headed albatross. We confirm the effectiveness of this new simple, real-time law by successful comparisons with sophisticated non-real-time optimal control solver and reported biological data. Our results establish the proposed mechanism as a new paradigm in soaring flight physics. That is, our results substantially advance the computational physics/biology aspects of the problem while providing a biologically plausible theory for avian soaring behavior.
title Universal Extremum Seeking Mechanism for Lift Variation in Soaring Birds Flight: A New Paradigm in Computational Physics and Biology
topic Biological Physics
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20232