{"id":1594,"date":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/headless-dog-sized-robot-to-patrol-alaska-airport-to-prevent-bird-strikes\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:29","slug":"headless-dog-sized-robot-to-patrol-alaska-airport-to-prevent-bird-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/headless-dog-sized-robot-to-patrol-alaska-airport-to-prevent-bird-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Headless, dog-sized robot to patrol Alaska airport to prevent bird strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A headless robot about the size of a labrador will be camouflaged as a coyote to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska’s second largest airport.<\/p>\n

The Alaska<\/strong> Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said it will be based at the Fairbanks airport to “enhance and augment safety and operations”.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Images have been released showing the robot – named Aurora – climbing rocks, going up stairs and doing something akin to dancing while flashing green lights.<\/p>\n

Those dancing skills will be put to use during the migratory bird season when Aurora will imitate predator-like movements to keep birds and other wildlife from settling near plane infields.<\/p>\n

Ryan Marlow, a programme manager with the transportation department said: “The sole purpose of this is to act as a predator and allow for us to invoke that response in wildlife without having to use other means.”<\/p>\n

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The plan is to have Aurora patrol an outdoor area near the runway every hour in an attempt to prevent harmful encounters between planes and wildlife.<\/p>\n

It can be disguised as a coyote or a fox by changing out replaceable panels.<\/p>\n

The idea of using a robot<\/strong> came after officials rejected a plan to use flying drones spraying a repellent including grape juice.<\/p>\n

Previous deterrent efforts have included officials releasing pigs at a lake near the Anchorage airport in the 1990s, with the hope they would eat waterfowl eggs near plane landing areas.<\/p>\n

The test period in Fairbanks will also see how effective of a deterrent Aurora would be with larger animals and to see how moose and bears would respond to the robot..<\/p>\n

Last year, there were 92 animal strikes near airports across Alaska, including 10 in Fairbanks, according to an Federal Aviation Administration database.<\/p>\n

Most strikes resulted in no damage to the aircraft, but Marlow said the encounters can be expensive and dangerous in the rare instance when a bird is sucked into an engine, potentially causing a crash.<\/p>\n

An AWACS jet crashed in 1995 when it hit a flock of geese, killing 24 people at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A headless robot about the size of a labrador will be camouflaged as a coyote…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}