Aeria Bird Repelling System. From lab to the landing strip. From the FESTO SmartBird towards a viable product against bird strikes.

Aeria Bird Repelling System. From lab to the landing strip. From the FESTO SmartBird towards a viable product against bird strikes.

Klavdianos, D.

Tempelman, E. (mentor)
Mul, E.J. (mentor)
Koudijzer, J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

Master of Science Integrated Product Design

2014-09-29

Birds pose a serious threat to aviation industry due to the fact that birds and aircraft share the same aerospace and inevitably collisions between them cannot be avoided. These collisions can cause from minor dents to the aircraft's fuselage to catastrophic damages to the engines which can lead to multiple human loses. In order to prevent bird strikes, airports use various bird control management methods. One of these methods is Falconry. Falconers use birds of prey to scare the birds that populate the airport's vicinity and keep them away from approaching the runways where the aircraft traffic is. Falconry has been broadly used and had showed promising results. However, the same with all repelling methods used, it features limitations due to biological (hunger, molting, etc.) and exogenic parameters (rain, low visibility, etc.) that effect birds flight. Therefore, bird controllers are always in pursuit of alternative, and more efficient methods of repelling birds. FESTO, leading company in industrial control and automation, has established the Bionic Learning Network, a joint research of the company with universities, institutes and other technological companies, though which they developed the SmartBird. The SmartBird is a mechanical bird, able to simulate the natural flight of a herring gull. It was firstly presented in 2011 Hannover Messe and it was intended as a technology demonstrator. However the question has since been raised; can this prototype form the basis of a commercially available product against pest birds in airfields? This graduation project is a study of the possibilities of redesigning the SmartBird into an autonomous or semi-autonomous aerial bird repelling system inspired by falconry and the natural relationship and behavior between birds and predators. The methodology which has been followed is Nature Inspired Design, by which the development of the system will not only meet the functional requirements set for the fulfillment of its purpose, but also fit its context of use by establishing a win-win situation between the system and its context of use and leaving a positive footprint.

birdstrikes
drone
airport
birds
dock
smartbird
nature
inspired
design
aircraft

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c2eb2806-ddc1-44fa-8ed6-1c7a161ce189

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Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Klavdianos, D.