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Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for Mitigating Bird Damage in Wine Grapes
1S. Bhusal, 1K. Khanal, 1M. Karkee, 2K. M. Steensma, 1M. E. Taylor
1. Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Center for Precision and Automated Agriculture Systems, Washington State University, Prosser, WA
2. Department of Biology and Environmental Studies, Trinity Western University, Canada, and Department of Animal Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
3. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Bird predation is a significant problem in high-value fruit crops, such as apples, cherries, blueberries, and wine grapes. Conventional methods such as netting, falconry, auditory scaring devices, lethal shooting, and visual scare devices are reported to be ineffective, costly, and/or difficult to manage. Therefore, farmers are in need of more effective and affordable bird control methods. In this study, two UAS wasused as a bird-deterring agent in a commercial vineyard. The experimental design consisted of six days of UAS flights and eight days of control observation (no UAS flight) alternated in an interval of two days, for a total of a 14-day experiment. On each of the flight days, a Matrice M600 Pro was flown over the field for approximately five hours supported by Phantom 3 Standard during the battery swapping of Matrice M600 Pro. Birds flying in and out of the field along the edges of the field were recorded using two different GoPro Hero 5 cameras. It was found that there wasa significantlylower number of birds during the UAS cycles compared to those during the control cycles.  

Keyword: Bird deterrence, unmanned aerial systems (UASs), vineyards, bird count