A RobotFalcon a day keeps the birds away (from airports)

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-10-26 10:01

International

The RobotFalcon (left), a view from the RobotFalcon’s underside during flight (top-right) and an example of its view during flight (bottom-right). Credit: Storms, F et al.

Sick of flight delays and cancellations? Birdbots could help, according to international researchers. The team built a robotic peregrine falcon, which they imaginatively named ‘RobotFalcon’, designed to scare away flocks of birds that could be hit by planes at airports in the Netherlands. According to the team, RobotFalcon outperformed drones and distress calls in chasing away corvids (think crows), gulls, starlings and lapwings without reducing in effectiveness over time. Bird collisions with aircrafts cost $1.4 billion annually, and the RobotFalcon is a practical and ethical solution, the team says.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon

Summary: Flocks of birds damage aircrafts and crops worldwide, causing large economic loss. The effectiveness of current deterrence methods is limited, thus new methods are needed. Here we present and test a newly developed RobotFalcon, resembling a peregrine falcon. It chases away flocks fast, prevents early returns, outperforming a drone and conventional methods, with no evidence for habituation. We conclude that the RobotFalcon is a valuable new asset for deterring birds.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Interface

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Funder: This publication was supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the project Preventing bird strikes: Developing RoboFalcons to deter bird flocks (grant no. 14723) of the Open Technology programme, awarded to CKH. C.C. is currently funded by the project PRIN 2020 Collective and individual responses of avian flocks to robotic predators 2020H5JWBH in collaboration with C.K.H.

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