[HN Gopher] Headless, dog-sized robot to patrol Alaska airport t...
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Headless, dog-sized robot to patrol Alaska airport to prevent bird
strikes
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 43 points
Date : 2024-03-30 14:29 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.sky.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.sky.com)
| darby_eight wrote:
| Do scarecrows not work anymore? I find it difficult to believe
| that this is the most cost efficient-way to address the issue. I
| thought it was at least going to target the birds with high-
| powered speakers calibrated towards the birds hearing (which
| again might be easier to deploy in turret form), but this just
| seems like a joke or a parody of "tech investment" or something.
|
| Granted, this _does_ appear to be the test phase, but I 'd hope
| there be _some_ evidence this might work before they spend money
| on it.
| analog31 wrote:
| I'm just thinking aloud here. Scarecrows might make the pilots
| freak out too. This thing has to not look like something that
| doesn't belong near a runway.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| Did scarecrows ever work?
| Roark66 wrote:
| Anyone who has a garden knows scarecrows don't work (more than
| a couple of days anyway).
|
| Birds are surprisingly smart and they lean very quickly.
| giarc wrote:
| I agree, seems like overkill especially if you need a person to
| manage the "dogs". Instead I'd create a track around the
| airport and have a "dog" like train that just travels along the
| track autonomously. You could randomize pattern and dog
| movements so the birds don't get suspicious.
| jacurtis wrote:
| Seems like a pretty good use case for an automated robot like
| this. It's nice to see a practical use-case for these advanced
| autonomous robots that doesn't involve war.
|
| So as I see it, this is like a fancy all-terrain Roomba. They
| dress it up like a Fox or Coyote and it wanders around and
| patrols the airport grounds, scaring away birds and generally
| preventing them from nesting in the area. Birds aren't going to
| nest in areas with active predators. So if this looks like an
| active predator making constant patrols, then birds will just go
| somewhere else to roost.
|
| Ultimately it saves the birds from being killed by planes or
| euthanized by other means. They are not harmed with this
| patrolling robo-fox, it just adds intimidation factor.
|
| Presumably, the robot will also be smarter than a Roomba and
| would know to avoid running onto the runway or other critical
| areas.
| mock-possum wrote:
| Betcha it won't take long for the birds to realize the robot is
| no threat.
| wrycoder wrote:
| They, and the deer, will tend to be in the runway area to
| avoid the "dog", which will stay off the runways.
| throwup238 wrote:
| It doesn't take very much to permanently scare a bird away
| from a nest they're in the process of building. They're much
| more sensitive to threats when establishing a nest.
| usrusr wrote:
| Depends on the species. Ever met pigeons?
| throwup238 wrote:
| I was actually thinking of pigeons/doves when I wrote
| that. Every year I get several nests around my property
| and if I get too close before there are chicks, the
| pigeons abandon the nest.
|
| I have to carefully track them to figure out which nests
| belong to mockingbirds and which ones belong to pigeons
| so I can chase the former away and let the latter do
| their thing.
| usrusr wrote:
| Mine were happily doing their thing even while I started
| the same balcony. Eventually I started sterilizing their
| eggs by cooking and placing them back (they do leave for
| a few minutes when actively shooing) and after a few
| failed clutches they are noticeably less eager to try
| again in that place.
| throwup238 wrote:
| Have you tried scaring them away before they lay the eggs
| or is it the same result? I never noticed eggs in the
| nests that were abandoned (I would put them in an
| incubator if I did)
|
| The term "pigeon" refers to the whole _Columbidae_ family
| with over 300 birds so YMMV. Mine are specifically
| mourning doves which are different from the pigeons I
| associate with cities (feral domesticated rock doves)
| eric-burel wrote:
| In France pigeons are protected and you have to let them
| nest (more precisely you can't move the nest once it's
| there and you cannot harm the eggs)
| zh3 wrote:
| Depends on the bird. I once tried a remote doorbell on a bird
| table to scare off large birds (pigeons); by about the third
| press they learnt to ignore it.
|
| In this case could be geese, which seem more cautious (then
| again if it's corvids, they'll probably figure out how to
| reprogram the robot).
| AnarchismIsCool wrote:
| Depends on the season, if it's spring the geese will just
| kill the robot.
| brippalcharrid wrote:
| I imagine that for any small-to-medium sized avian a ~100lb
| robot could very easily become a threat.
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| okay but why not, just, use dogs or coyotes
|
| not joking. Dogs can be trained. Coyotes... just set up some
| feeding pens full of carrion at either side of the airport, and
| set up some doors that open at intervals (there, scratched that
| robot itch).
| Tutitk wrote:
| It is very expensive to train a dog and maintain its
| training. Like $50k starting price and $20k every year after.
|
| Dogs are incredibly stupid, they like to step in front of
| moving vehicles. Very bad for airport runways...
| elliottkember wrote:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-QxZv_wJ1aA
|
| Airport bird dogs are already a thing. Seems like a dream job
| for a dog.
|
| But you need a full-time handler, a car, a kennel, training
| and eventually a replacement. They can't work 24/7, and if
| they are out sick for a day the birds are back. Essentially
| the argument for any kind of automation.
|
| This comment is like looking at a scarecrow, and saying "why
| not just go and stand out in your field all day?"
|
| And feeding wild coyotes unlimited food, near people, comes
| with its own set of problems.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| the noise is way too harsh for dogs at many times of
| operation?
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| I mean you can treat the coyotes like dogs on meth,
| considering they do exist as pets. That is, i thought just
| what you wrote but with no need to have extra carrion.
| robocat wrote:
| Perhaps because you don't want planes hitting coyotes on the
| runway.
|
| You especially don't want to be the person responsible for a
| dog-strike. Don't mess with the FAA nor the SPCA nor the
| unions.
| tamimio wrote:
| It's not autonomous and it is not smart, you are giving a lot
| of credit for an expensive toy.
| klyrs wrote:
| Back in my day, they'd just call the Pinkertons
| dumpsterlid wrote:
| You could definitely train a dog to do this and it would probably
| have a blast doing it all day.
|
| Not enough dog investors pushing dog-tech hype though. It is a
| shame though, have you ever read about what their noses can do??
| aerostable_slug wrote:
| There are few robot welfare advocates complaining about robots
| doing what dogs love to do, though. Nobody is going to say
| robo-fido is being exposed to carcinogens or loud noises while
| it (merrily?) chases off birds.
| pelagic_sky wrote:
| Many airports in the states already employ full time dogs to
| clear birds.
| imglorp wrote:
| This appears to be a stock Spot with a paint job and some mission
| specific code?
|
| https://bostondynamics.com/products/spot/
| wcoenen wrote:
| This Anchorage Daily article confirms that it's a Spot robot.
| The first image caption mentions Boston Dynamics. They just
| named this individual robot "Aurora".
|
| https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2024/03/27/alaskas-new-robot...
| wyldfire wrote:
| The photo from the article shows a pilot with controls (or
| technician with a monitor?). How autonomous is the robot?
| tamimio wrote:
| Because it is not autonomous, it's RC controlled. As long as
| you don't see special sensors like lidars or cams, assume it's
| not, and glad the article showed the guy too for the
| transparency.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| I see at least 11 sensors in the top two photos of the
| article including 8 or 9 sensors on the front face of the
| robot and three sensors on the rear side mid body forward of
| the hind leg, which I assume is duplicated on the other side,
| so maybe 15 external sensors at least.
|
| I also did photo journalism in college and these photos are
| from an AP News photographer. One of the things I learned in
| journalism class is to always try to get a person in your
| photo, as it helps humanize the story. So it may be an
| autonomous capable robot they showed in R/C mode for
| journalistic interest.
| handsclean wrote:
| This seems far from the best way to accomplish the goal, and has
| been turned into a big photo op, which to me comes across as a
| probable discount for publicity trade, indicating Boston Dynamics
| being surprisingly desperate for real world use cases. For all
| the progress in autonomous robots, maybe they're actually in a
| sort of uncanny valley of generalization: more general than
| previously possible, but not general enough to unlock most tasks
| that previously couldn't be automated.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| What is with these weirdly conspiratorial comments?
|
| A company sells their product for money to a government agency,
| and somehow this makes them "surprisingly desperate". Dude,
| they're not having the robot strip on the weekends as a side
| gig.
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| _> Dude, they 're not having the robot strip on the weekends
| as a side gig._
|
| Beautiful.
| handsclean wrote:
| If you really think not taking product news at face value is
| conspiratorial, you're far too trusting. The transactions I'm
| theorizing here are very common and not illegal.
|
| "Surprisingly desperate" seems to not be coming across as I
| intended, I meant only that it's surprising that a product
| that should sell itself is instead searching for use cases,
| as weakly evidenced by this article but more strongly
| evidenced by their many past pivots without significant
| adoption.
| stephendause wrote:
| What are more cost-effective ways of accomplishing the same
| goal?
| tamimio wrote:
| Real dogs.
| polar8 wrote:
| Instead of a dog-sized robot, why not use a... dog?
| tamimio wrote:
| How else they are going to milk millions of funds?! Throw in
| some buzz words and cool looking robots, welcome to the
| robotics industry!
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| Why not use real dogs? They are really good at this.
| _qua wrote:
| Purely as a piece of photography that second photo is very cool
| with the sharp focus and the snow in the air.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| Ah yeah that one is nice! I did photo journalism in college and
| always appreciate good journalism photos.
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