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A Basic Pursuit Curve-An Inverse Approach

This article presents how to derive a pursuit curve that is created by swapping the variables of another pursuit curve.

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Henryk Mokrzycki
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1K views

A Basic Pursuit Curve-An Inverse Approach

This article presents how to derive a pursuit curve that is created by swapping the variables of another pursuit curve.

Uploaded by

Henryk Mokrzycki
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Basic Pursuit Curve – an inverse approach

Henryk Mokrzycki
02/12/2024

In Pursuit Curves (https://www.scribd.com/document/215402854/Pursuit-Curves),


in the first example, the authors considered a ship (a prey) and a missile (a predator).
The ship starts at (x0, 0) at t ≥ 0 and is travelling at Vs along the vertical line x = x0. The
missile starts at (0, 0) at time t = 0 and travels at a constant speed of Vm along a curved path
so that its velocity vector is poiting directly at the ship. Fig.1.

Fig.1 Fig.2

If the missile at time t ≥ 0 is the point (x, y) and the position of the ship is (x0, Vst) then the
slope of the tangent to the pursuit curve at (x, y) is:

(1)

To derive the pursuit curve the authors started with the above equation
and derived the following solution:

(2)

If the variables in eqaution (2) are swapped it becames:

(3)

1
Now, we have a different situation.

Now, the ship starts at (0, y0) at t ≥ 0 and is travelling at Vs along the horizontal line y = y0.
The missile starts at (0, 0) at time t = 0 and travels at a constant speed of Vm along a curved
path so that its velocity vector is poiting directly at the ship. Fig.2.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and explain how equation (3) can be derived
from the following equation:

(4)

We solve (4) for t:

(5)

To get to the point (x, y), the missile has travelled a distance of Vmt along the pursuit curie so using
the arc length formula we get:

(6)

Combining equations (5) and (6) gives:

(7)

(8)

Differentiate both sides and reduce:

2
(9)

Let

Replace y’= u(y) in equation (9):

Integrate both sides with a table of integrals:

(tanh-1 is the inverse of tanh and not its reciprocal 1/tanh)

Because inverse functions “undo” each other, we have:

3
(10)

As the missile’s velocity is always pointed directly toward the ship, at time t=0 y=0 and dx/dy = 0.

Solving for C, we find that:

Insert this result into equation (10) to get:

Integrate both sides with a table of integrals:

(11)

(12)

At time t=0 x=0

4
Insert this result into equation (11) to get:

(13)

As we can see equations (3) and (13) are the same.

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