cry-d/ooda-loop

OODA loop demo

OODA loop demonstration

Copyright 2019 Ben Eater

This code is MIT licensed.

What is this?

This is a simple demonstration of an "observe, orient, decide, act (OODA) loop" that I built for Destin to use in this Smarter Every Day video:

This simulation is running on my website if you’d like to check it out.

What does the simulation show?

It’s an extremely simple model… Each plane has the singular goal of flying towards the other plane. That’s it. The only difference between the planes is the OODA interval, otherwise everything else—speed, turn rate, etc—is the same.

Each interval, the plane will determine the bearing direct to the other plane. That bearing then becomes its assigned heading (shown by the vector) until the next interval. Meanwhile it always blindly turns towards and flies its assigned heading.

The planes start in random positions, but the simplicity of the algorithm means they quickly fall into predictable patterns. But if the difference in OODA loop times is significant between the two planes, the pattern it falls into results in one of them “winning”—that is, maintaining a better tactical position.

Technical

This project was bootstrapped with Create React App. Not because React is a good choice for building something game-like—it's not—but because it was a quick-and-easy way to set up a reasonably-configured build environment. Consequently, I wouldn't recommend using this project as an example of how to use React, or how to write a game. Or if you do, at least be aware that there are two separate design patterns inelegantly woven together here.

Available scripts

In the project directory, you can run:

yarn start

Runs the app in the development mode.
Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.

The page will reload if you make edits.
You will also see any lint errors in the console.

yarn build

Builds the app for production to the build folder.
It correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance.

The build is minified and the filenames include the hashes.
Your app is ready to be deployed!

See the section about deployment for more information.