Bird control using Drones

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Dineshkumar E

A flock of birds can easily bring down a billion-dollar aircraft. You might have read some news like aircraft is halted or crash happened because of a bird strike. In the US alone there were 142,000 bird strikes happened between 1990 and 2013 which killed 24 people and destroyed 64 civilian aeroplanes.

Birds are not only affecting the aviation industry but also other fields like Agriculture, Marine docks, Football grounds, etc.

In this drone project, we will try to figure out a solution to the above-mentioned problems caused by birds. Nowadays drones gained huge popularity because of the following features such as manoeuvrability, easy to control, low manufacturing cost, etc.

Here we are going to implement drones to scare/control the birds by producing ultrasonic sounds (Bird repellant) without making any harm to the birds as well as the environment.

Read more..

SLNOTE
Project Implementation

Multi-rotor with Quad configuration is used in this project to build the bird-scaring drone. Because Quadcopter has an added advantage of easy controllability and more flight time compared to the other configurations. Here the making cost is also less compared to hexacopter and octocopter (fewer motors less cost).

First design and analyse the model with the help of software like CATIA, ANSYS, SOLIDWORKS, etc. to reduce the mistakes that will happen if you start the fabrication directly.

Now choose the components according to your requirements such as payload, flight time, range, etc.

After selecting the components to calculate the approximate AUW (All Up Weight) of the drone including payload (Ultrasonic bird repellant).

Calculated, AUW = 7 Kg

SLLATEST
Components used to build the drone:

1. 800 KV Brushless motor
2. 10x4.5 propeller (Clockwise and Anticlockwise)
3. 30A Electronic Speed Controller
4. Pixhawk flight controller
5. GPS module
6. Radio telemetry (Ground and Air)
7. Video transmission and receiving system
8. Power module
9. Ultrasonic sound generator
10. Long-range transmitter and receiver (TBS crossfire)
11. 5000 mAh Lipo battery
12. Ground control station (Laptop/mobile)
13. Companion computer - Raspberry pi (If required)

With the help of GPS, you can able to perform autonomous functions such as waypoint, Flyhere, Grid, Geofencing, etc. To perform the above functions you need ground control software such as QGround control, DroneDeploy, Mission Planner, etc.

With the help of such software, you can able to receive real-time data from the drone to your laptop/mobile (Ground Station). Also, you can able to pass commands to the drone to arm the ultrasonic bird repellant.

Applications:

• Prevents crop damage in the agricultural field
• In sports complex to prevent the disturbance during football, cricket, hockey matches.
• Public places like parks, lakes, etc. to scare away the pigeons.
• Marine docks, farmlands, airports, apartments, etc. are some places where the drone finds application.

Future works

You can also make the same setup in fixed-wing to gain more flight time and load capability but fixed-wings are difficult to control in a confined space. By implementing computer-vision algorithms to the drone you can able to make a fully autonomous drone model which will automatically detect and scare the birds away. Simply put you can use drones for herding birds.

SLDYK
Kit required to develop Bird control using Drones:

• bldc motor
• ESC
• Flight controller
• Propeller

Technologies you will learn by working on Bird control using Drones:

• Drone
• Aerodynamics
• Mechanical
• Electronic
• Automation

Any Questions?