What does this sentence here mean? 'inertial guidance relies. . . . . . . . object it is part of'
That sounds easy in principle, but collision-avoidance, especially when what is to be avoided is moving as well, requires good manoeuvring skills. This is where the flies and the moths come in. Adjusted for size, blowflies are better at manoeuvring than any fighter aircraft yet built. Hawk moths are superb at hovering. Both insects use the same method: they combine vision with an inertial guidance system.

Inertial guidance relies on measuring the position of something that, because of its inertia, resists following the object it is part of. Man-made systems use gyroscopes. Moths use their antennae. Flies use a pair of tiny organs called halteres that have evolved from the animals’ hind wings and are shaped like balls on sticks.

Thanks

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21647267-small-drones-need-fly-free-human-operators-insects-suggest-engineers-how

Question

What does this sentence here mean? 'inertial guidance relies. . . . . . . . object it is part of'
That sounds easy in principle, but collision-avoidance, especially when what is to be avoided is moving as well, requires good manoeuvring skills. This is where the flies and the moths come in. Adjusted for size, blowflies are better at manoeuvring than any fighter aircraft yet built. Hawk moths are superb at hovering. Both insects use the same method: they combine vision with an inertial guidance system.

Inertial guidance relies on measuring the position of something that, because of its inertia, resists following the object it is part of. Man-made systems use gyroscopes. Moths use their antennae. Flies use a pair of tiny organs called halteres that have evolved from the animals’ hind wings and are shaped like balls on sticks.

Thanks

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21647267-small-drones-need-fly-free-human-operators-insects-suggest-engineers-how

Answer

I found little to nothing about   Insect  "Intertial Guidance"  You might find something about   Bats.

At any rate,   it should suffice to say that the brain  and senses of living organisms   serve as an Input and Output devices interacting with the Brain which serves as a computer or computational device to "navigate" or enable the organism to find its way by  sensory functions not usually seen in human beings.

Answer

First,  let's consider the man-made or mechanical form:

Wikipedia indicates:

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"A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a guidance process used for controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in position, velocity, attitude, and/or rotation rates of a moving object required to follow a certain trajectory and/or attitude profile based on information about the object's state of motion.[1][2][3]

A guidance system is usually part of a Guidance, navigation and control system, whereas navigation refers to the systems necessary to calculate the current position and orientation based on sensor data like those from Compasses, GPS receivers, Loran-C, Star trackers, Inertial measurement units, Altimeters, etc. The output of the navigation system, the navigation solution, is an input for the guidance system, among others like the environmental conditions (wind, water, temperature, etc.) and the vehicle's characteristics (i.e. mass, control system availability, control systems correlation to vector change, etc.). In general, the guidance system computes the instructions for the control system, which comprises the object's actuators (e.g, thrusters, reaction wheels, body flaps, etc.), which are capable to manipulate the flight path and orientation of the object without direct or continuous human control."----read more @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guidance_system

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Next, we can consider "inertial guidance" in living organisms: