Hunting (engineering)
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Hunting is a self-exciting oscillation of a physical system, commonly that of systems incorporating feedback. It also occurs as an uncomfortable phenomenon in railway wheels. A similar phenomenon in automotive tires is known as shimmy.
For a mathematical analysis of the phenomenon in the context of railway vehicle dynamics, see Hunting oscillation.
An example of the phenomenon occurred in early automatic transmission designs. At certain speeds the transmission system, currently being in a "higher gear" would decide that operation in a "lower gear" would more desirable and would switch to the lower gear. Having reached the lower gear setting, the transmission then decides that operation in a higher gear would be better and switches back. The result was a continuous up-and-down shifting behavior at certain speeds that was not only annoying but hard on the transmission. Such behaviors can be inhibited by introducing hysteresis into the system.
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