(ORDO NEWS) — A team of researchers from the University of Groningen and the Royal Netherlands Air Force have designed, built and tested a drone dubbed the RobotFalcon. He looks and flies like a falcon. The device is designed to drive away flocks of birds from airports.
Flocks of birds that gather at airports are a real threat to flight safety. Drones should help eliminate it
A team of researchers from the University of Groningen, Tuscia University, Rofleit, Lemselobrink and the Royal Netherlands Air Force have designed, built and tested a robot called RobotFalcon that looks and flies like a real falcon.
Birds flying both singly and in whole flocks pose a danger to aircraft. An aircraft strike with a bird can cause damage, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. For example, the famous landing on the Hudson River in 2009 occurred after the plane’s engines sucked in the birds and stopped.
Scientists have long been working on various methods that would reliably drive birds away from the entrance to the flight spaces. For example, systems that broadcast the calls of birds in distress are used to scare away birds, but such signals do not always work.
In the new work, the researchers designed and built a remote-controlled flying robot resembling a falcon. Scientists chose the falcon because it is one of the most ferocious flying predators, and almost all birds know it well.
“Falcon hunting
RobotFalcon is made from fiberglass and polypropylene and painted to look like a real falcon. Its electric motor drives two propellers located at the front of each wing.
To mimic the flight of a falcon, the researchers studied the flight characteristics of real birds and then added features to their “bird” that would allow it to fly “like a falcon.”
During field tests, the falcon drone scared away entire flocks of birds in just five minutes, and in half of the cases it was possible to clear the area in just 70 seconds.
The team ran several tests with the same flock of birds over the course of three months and found no habituation: they were frightened by the falcon drone no matter how often it was seen.
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