Birds are like deer. They symbolize nature, freedom and all those heartwarming concepts, but in truth they can be annoying and cause a lot of damage. They eat crops, interfere at airports, hang out at harbors etc. That’s why a Dutch company called Clear Flight Solutions (CFS) is working on Robirds, which are remote-controlled aircraft that move and look like bird of prey.
Robirds are hand-painted and fly by flapping their wings. By introducing what appears to be a natural predator, CFS claims that Robirds can reduce the number of birds in an area by 50%. The company claims that this is a long term solution: “Because the Robirds trigger the instinct of birds, there are no chances of habituation in the long term. There are currently no other means available in battling the nuisance of birds, that have such high success rates as the Robird.”
CFS is working with additive manufacturing company Materialise to develop and produce the Robirds. The current prototypes have laser-sintered bodies. The main benefit of additive manufacturing is that it makes it faster and cheaper to tweak Robird bodies compared to using molds.
Robirds currently come in two models. The peregrine falcon Robird is for birds up to 6.6lb., while the eagle can supposedly scare away birds of all sizes.
I wonder what the anti-raccoon version of Robirds would be.
[via 3D Print]
