A 27-year-old man in the Netherlands, Nico Nijenhuis has created a line of robotic birds that will chase real birds away in places like airports and landfills.
There are many people who enjoy watching birds dominate the sky, however the flying creatures can pose problems in certain areas. That’s where robotic hawks come in.
A 27-year-old man in the Netherlands, Nico Nijenhuis has created a line of robotic birds that will chase real birds away in places like airports and landfills.
In the future, Nijenhuis wants to market his birds to waste management officials and to those working in the aviation industry. Currently, his company Clear Flight Solutions is testing lookalike eagles and Peregrine Falcons.
In a blurb about the development it was noted “The Robird Peregrine Falcon is a remotely piloted robotic bird of prey, used to repel other birds. Our project addresses the process of creating a mathematical model of the Robird's dynamic behaviour, which is needed for future autopilot design.”
By the end of this year, Nijenhuis hopes to have fully functional autonomous birds. He has been working on perfecting his birds for years.
Creating a robot with realistic wing-flapping movements was quite a problem. The combination of stabilization software, sensors and flexible foam wings give the Robirds a natural motion.
The robotic birds have a 3D printed body derived from a durable glass-fiber nylon composite with true falcon colors. A 75 percent decrease in real bird visits has been reported at one landfill where the Robirds are being tested.
