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Co-design in Bird Scaring Drone Systems: Potentials and Challenges in Agriculture

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Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and Informatics 2020 (AISI 2020)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1261))

Abstract

In Namibia, agricultural production depends on small-scale farms. One of the main threats to these farms is the birds’ attack. There are various traditional methods that have been used to control these pest birds such as making use of chemicals, fires, traps, hiring people to scare the birds, as well as using different aspects of agricultural modifications. The main problem of using such methods is that they are expensive, many are harmful to the environment or demand extra-human resources. In this paper, we investigate the potential and challenges of using a swarm of drones as an Intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system in a bird scaring system targeting a specific type of bird called Quelea quelea, i.e., weaver bird, and on Pearl millet crop. The idea is to have a co-design methodology of the swarm control system, involving technology developers and end-users. To scare away the birds from the field, a disruption signal predator-like sound will be produced by the drone. This sound is extremely threatening and terrifying for most bird species. The empirical results show that using the aforementioned technology has a great potential to increases food security and sustainability in Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku (UTU), 20500, Turku, Finland

    Moammar Dayoub, Mohammad-Hashem Haghbayan & Erkki Sutinen

  2. University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

    Rhoda J. Birech & Simon Angombe

Authors
  1. Moammar Dayoub
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  2. Rhoda J. Birech
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  3. Mohammad-Hashem Haghbayan
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  4. Simon Angombe
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  5. Erkki Sutinen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Moammar Dayoub .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology Department, and Chair of the Scientific Research Group in Egypt, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Aboul Ella Hassanien

  2. Department of Electronics and Computer Science, Koszalin University of Technology, Koszalin, Poland

    Adam Slowik

  3. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VĹ B-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava-Poruba, Moravskoslezsky, Czech Republic

    Václav Snášel

  4. Rector of the Electronic Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt

    Hisham El-Deeb

  5. Faculty of computers and information, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

    Fahmy M. Tolba

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Dayoub, M., Birech, R.J., Haghbayan, MH., Angombe, S., Sutinen, E. (2021). Co-design in Bird Scaring Drone Systems: Potentials and Challenges in Agriculture. In: Hassanien, A.E., Slowik, A., Snášel, V., El-Deeb, H., Tolba, F.M. (eds) Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and Informatics 2020. AISI 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1261. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58669-0_54

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