Researchers Taught a Drone to Herd Birds Away From Airports

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
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Birds strike aircraft thousands of times per year and sometimes the results can be devastating. The US Airways flight that made an emergency landing in the Hudson river back in 2009 comes to mind. Current methods to combat bird strikes are airport sound cannons and even falcons to keep the birds away. However, this isn't as effective as it needs to be and researchers have come up with a unique idea utilizing drones to herd the birds away. Engineers at Caltech modified sheep herding algorithms for software that is used to autonomously control a drone. Early results are promising and if you go to the source article you'll find a gif that shows the drone in action. Maybe this technology will save lives and equipment damage in the future. If so inclined, you can read the paper here.

The team found the system to be effective in tests for flocks of dozens of birds with only one drone (see gif). The technology could help prevent accidents like Sullenberger’s “Miracle on the Hudson” landing.
 
With less unknown bodies in the sky this should also make it easier to spot rogue drones.
No doubt the bird scaring drones will be purposed to keep the air clear of them as well.
Thats as newsworthy as bird scaring.
 
How do aircraft engines react to drone strikes though!?!?!

See? I just created an entirely new project for the FAA......you can employ 30, maybe even 60 thousand people just looking into this bullshit right here. "We have determined, at a cost of billions, that it's better to just suck-up the birds, which were determined to be 'more squishy'".

Cuz Idiocracy.
 
HeadRusch said:
How do aircraft engines react to drone strikes though!?!?!

See? I just created an entirely new project for the FAA......you can employ 30, maybe even 60 thousand people just looking into this bullshit right here. "We have determined, at a cost of billions, that it's better to just suck-up the birds, which were determined to be 'more squishy'".

Cuz Idiocracy.
Click to expand...
well if you only have maybe 4 drones in the air keeping hundreds of birds out of the way...I think it'll be a hell of a lot safer, and I'd assume that they won't operate in the plane flight path but outside it to stop the birds getting in the way in the first place
 
Would be interesting to see the impact on bird migrations and if this has any affect on them deciding where to go for a final destination. If you scare birds off their path do they still follow the path they intended to? Bottom line of what I'm getting at is controlling more space on this planet because HUMANS may be the straw that breaks the camels back. We love to meddle don't we?
 
TheOne&OnlyZeke said:
well if you only have maybe 4 drones in the air keeping hundreds of birds out of the way...I think it'll be a hell of a lot safer, and I'd assume that they won't operate in the plane flight path but outside it to stop the birds getting in the way in the first place
Click to expand...

Yeah but nothing in our country is ever done sensibly or to-scale, so you know what starts out making sense will soon have a Drone Lobby in Washington, you'll have corrupt administrators asking for 300 drones and flying 3 of them while buying Maseratti's and diamonds for hookers with the rest of it, then you'll have the Socialists demanding drones be downed and the jobs given to human beings instead, who
will then run around and chase the birds off the runway...

Which will get us to the Human-Ingestion Department of the Federal Aviation Administration. "So, just how do aircraft engines react to people-strikes?".......we're gonna need 30, maybe even 60 thousand people to figure that shit out.....
 
HeadRusch said:
How do aircraft engines react to drone strikes though!?!?!

See? I just created an entirely new project for the FAA......you can employ 30, maybe even 60 thousand people just looking into this bullshit right here. "We have determined, at a cost of billions, that it's better to just suck-up the birds, which were determined to be 'more squishy'".

Cuz Idiocracy.
Click to expand...

Cuz you are displaying ignorance?

Science Bitch! (Not directed at you - Breaking Bad reference)

The use of GPS, ground based locator beacons, IRUs, multiple cameras, advanced flight algorithms, on-board AI, flight exclusion zones, audio sensors, predefined patrolling routes, etc, etc, make this entirely feasible. Something like this would also go through a crap load of very exhaustive and complete testing as well. Everything FAA related does.

You are probably envisioning a bunch of idiots operating homemade drones alongside the runways - This is NOT what this is about.

And it would most likely be contracted out to a defense contractor and done right. (Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, BAE Systems, etc.)
 
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so how long till we read about the drones getting hacked and instead of driving away the birds.. they are used to drive the birds INTO the planes as they take off??

and to make the plot even thicker.. someone important was on that plane...

Grab your tinfoil
 
the ad banner that showed when I came to this page ... UBTECH Lynx Humanoid Robot w/ Amazon Alexa "just gets smarter and smarter"

Where oh were does all the input data go?
 
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jpm100 said:
Herd birds, then herding mutants, and then humans are next.
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Yep, they will get a software update to HERD humans. then a follow-up update that has a typo to HUNT humans

and.. thats how it begins

:eek:
 
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