During World War II, electronic technology was still in its infancy, and how to create a lightweight and accurate electronic navigation system was a subject for missile experts from various countries to study. At this time, the missile does not have a GPS positioning system, and it is a matter of probability to hit the target.
Whether the so-called missile works or not depends on whether you can do it or not.
At that time, the research budget for missiles was very high, and it cost $20 million to pay a missile, and in order to hit the target, an American named Burhrus Frederic Skinner led the pigeon program, hoping to use pigeons instead of some equipment to achieve precision guidance of bombs.
At first, everyone thought the idea was a fantasy, but because of the influence of Skinner himself and the impact of the rapid development of science at the time, the military struggled and the pigeon program was provided by the military.2$50,000 in support.
So how can the pigeons improve their hit rate?
Skinner fixed the pigeon, leaving only the neck and head to move, and then placed a screen in front of the pigeon, and placed the food on the screen, the pigeon saw the food, and it would continue to peck at the screen, forming a conditioned reflex, so that the pigeon could lock on to the target more accurately. When the missile deviates, the pigeon will continue to follow the target point that has deviated, and the screen will move according to the pigeon's pecking point until the peck point (i.e., the target point) is again in the center of the screen. In this process, the trajectory is corrected by the movement of the screen, and this is probably the meaning of the principle of the entire guidance system.
The pigeons, which have passed the training, are fitted with a screen touch device on their heads, and are placed in the guidance compartment of the missile, becoming the pilot of the missile. In order to improve the missile hit rate, Skinner put three pigeons in the missile, and a screen will also be placed in front of the pigeon, the difference is that the things on the screen have changed from the food ** to the enemy** real-time picture, due to the conditioned reflex during training, the pigeon will subconsciously peck at the target If the center is offset, the pigeon will peck at a place other than the center, and the sensor will automatically adjust.
So, what to do when all three pigeons disagree?
In this case, the solution is also very simple, the minority obeys the majority. When a pigeon has inconsistent pecking points, the system will correct the direction according to the principle of minority obeying the majority, and finally hit the target, and this method has a very high hit rate. As for the fact that the movements of the three pigeons are not the same, theoretically speaking, the pigeons after training are not prone to such differences, and the shooting angle is relatively narrow, the target image is relatively large, and the pigeons do not have too many choices.
Although the hit rate was high, the U.S. military terminated the pigeon program in October 1944, and pigeon lovers strongly condemned it, although the plan was not successfully implemented, but its innovation and creativity are still worth learning from Xi.