Automated execution of a pest bird deterrence system using a programmable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Abstract

Crop damage caused by pest birds is a big problem around the world. As many studies have shown, existing bird control methods have not met growers' expectations regarding efficacy, reliability, and cost. Researchers are investigating the potential of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a tool for bird deterrence in agricultural fields to address this challenge. UAV-based bird deterrence techniques investigated in the past needed human operators to locate bird flocks and fly UAVs to desired trajectories. This study focused on automating a UAV-based bird deterrence system to operate it in real-time. Specifically, we focused on; i) optimizing the existing machine vision system to detect and locate birds-like movement in a real-time; ii) dynamically creating and launching two intelligent UAV missions in real-time to scare incoming birds (target intercept mission) or birds that are already inside the field (field patrol mission); and iii) executing these missions independently (short duration mission) as well as jointly (longer missions with more variation) in a vineyard using a programmable UAV. Outdoor experiment was conducted to evaluate the mission execution efficiency of the proposed system using a programmable UAV without a built-in global positioning system (GPS). Simulated bird movements generated using waving human hands were used for evaluating the target intercept mission. Results show that the algorithms developed for automated operation completed ∼92% of the assigned tasks successfully during shorter mission and 90% of the task during longer mission. Despite, successful execution of algorithms, the automated system experienced major shortcomings due to the lack of GPS for navigation of the UAV, which can be improved using a GPS-enabled programmable UAV. Future work also includes full scale field evaluation using machine vision system to identify actual incoming birds to determine the efficiency in deterring birds in commercial operations.