See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/321814103

Development of a solar powered bird repeller system with effective bird scarer
sounds

Conference Paper · November 2017

DOI: 10.1109/ICISCT.2017.8188587

CITATIONS READS
11 2,244

5 authors, including:

Azamjon Muminov Daeyoung Na

Konkuk University Konkuk University
9 PUBLICATIONS   28 CITATIONS    4 PUBLICATIONS   23 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Virtual Fence View project

Wild Animal Repeller System View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Azamjon Muminov on 15 April 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Development of a Solar Powered Bird Repeller
System with Effective Bird Scarer Sounds
Azamjon Muminov Yun Chan Jeon Daeyoung Na, Cheolwon Lee,
Department of Computer Chungju High School Heung Seok Jeon
Engineering Chung-ju, Rep. of Korea Dep. of Computer Engineering
Konkuk University [email protected] Konkuk University
Chung-ju, Rep. of Korea Chung-ju, Rep. of Korea
[email protected] [email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract— All around the world, domestic birds are a major x Candidiasis – a yeast or fungal infection that affects the
threat in the field of agriculture causing damage to economic field skin, mouth, and respiratory system; spread by pigeons
crops, storage houses and also dirtying human life areas. Such
most common pest birds in many countries are House crows x Cryptococcosis – an illness that begins as a pulmonary
(Corvus), Common myna, Jungle myna, Brahminy starling, disease & can later affect the central nervous system;
White-cheeked bulbul, Acridotterestritis etc. In order to distract caused by yeast found in the intestinal tract of pigeons
these birds away, many traditional methods such as Scarecrow and starlings
models, Hawk kites, Coloured lights, Lasers, Flashes, Chemicals
etc are used which nowadays do not seem very effective. In this x St. Louis Encephalitis – an inflammation of the
paper an effective bird deterrent technique i.e. Solar Powered nervous system that can result in paralysis, coma or
Audible Bird Scarer has been developed. Different sounds due to death; spread by mosquitos which have fed on infected
which different species of birds get deterred were also noticed and house sparrows, pigeons, and house finches.
studied. Unlike other projects, our project includes a variety of
Pest birds can also carry over 50 kinds of ectoparasites,
techniques playing sounds.
which can work their way throughout structures to infest and
Keywords—Bird; Solar power; Bird repeller system; Audible bite humans:
scarer; Effective scarer sounds. x Bed bugs – parasitic insects that feed on human blood
I. INTRODUCTION and have become a worldwide epidemic
Bird scaring is the dispersal of birds using stimuli that make x Chicken mites – known carriers of encephalitis; may
them uncomfortable. The most common domestic birds are also cause fowl mite dermatitis and acariasis
crows (Corvuscorone), magpie, sparrows (Passer domesticus), x Yellow mealworms – may cause intestinal canthariasis
starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and blackbirds (Turdusmerula) in and hymenolespiasis.
many countries in the world. These birds not only give damage
to the agricultural area but also make dirty the human life area. In order to protect these areas against bird damage, some
Besides birds are known to carry over 60 transmissible studies about mechanical and chemical fighting methods have
diseases – some potentially fatal. Bird droppings help to spread been made up to now. For instance, it was reported in the
disease when fecal dust enters living areas or when someone literatures that the effect of 50% anthraquinone and 75%
enters contaminated spaces and starts breathing in fungal spores methiocarb, caffeine, garlic extract, physical barriers such as net
(Figure 1). or acrylic fibres, distress calls of birds, human bird scarer and
colored lights on birds were studied. From the results of these
Serious diseases associated with pest birds include:
works, it can be said that the most effective method is the
x Histoplasmosis – a potentially fatal respiratory disease; physical barriers such as nets and fibres for agricultural areas.
results from a fungus growing in dried bird droppings However, the use of properly mounted and maintained nets is
quite expensive. Besides, there is also not enough studies are
x West Nile Virus – a serious and potentially life- reported in the literatures for protecting the city streets against
threatening infection; spread by mosquitos that have bird’s dirtiness. When social birds are dispersed using other bird
fed on infected wild birds scaring methods such as loud noises they generally do not fly far
x Salmonellosis – a bacteria that often occurs as food away. They would normally just settle on the nearest safe perch,
poisoning; can be traced to pigeons, starlings and which might be quite close to the area where they are causing a
sparrows, bird droppings and dust from bird droppings problem. With the use of distress call bird scarers, they generally
tend to move further away from the call source and the entire
*Corresponding author. Tel.:+82 43 840 3621. uncomfortable area.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Heung Seok Jeon).

978-1-5386-2168-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 Fig. 1. Kinds of diseases.
Natural bird distress calls played back at a natural sound
level are normally not intrusive to people. Broadcasting distress III. HARDWARE CONSTRUCTION
calls elicits different reactions in different species of pest birds. Considering these shortcomings, we decided more
Social and aggressive birds that communicate verbally within intelligent bird repeller system, which includes more effective
colonies, such as gulls and corvids will usually fly towards the sounds and methods to playing sounds. The design of the scarer
source initially to see if they could mob the predator and help is as shown in its circuit diagram drawn below (Figure 3). The
their kind. When the call ceases and they do not find a predator major components of the designed and manufactured scarer are
they are then unnerved or „scared‟ by the possible danger and a solar panel (7W, 12V), an intelligent PWM solar charge
disperse. Birds that do not communicate much verbally or do not controller, 12V battery, MP3 Player, amplifier (Stereo 20W
have bills or claws to threaten predators such as pigeons or Class D Audio Amplifier - MAX9744), two 20W speakers, three
starlings will tend to stop and assess the situation, then disperse sonar sensor or PIR sensor and Arduino UNO microcontroller.
directly. The best results are likely to come from the distress call Battery charges via solar charge controller by a solar panel and
of the actual pest bird species causing the problem, though the electricity stored in this device.
closely related species distress calls can also evoke a response.
Hence it is seen that broadcasting distress calls is one of the most
effective and efficient ways to deter birds. Therefore, a solar
powered audible bird scarer was designed, manufactured and
tested in this experimental investigation.
II. ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Even there are several projects have been done to control
birds, there are a number of growing problems associated with
pest birds in residential, industrial and agricultural areas. The
main reasons of the past, bird control solutions have been limited
with traps, playing similar sounds or using similar playing
method. One of the bird control devices is Sonic Bird Controller
(Figure 2a). It is easy to install, fully programmable and it Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the components of
controls birds using bird alarm calls and predator cries that the bird scarer.
condition pest birds to stay away from the area – one device The domestic bird’s predators’ calls and special sounds
covers multiple acres of land. But however, the study showed (such as gun shut sounds) was loaded to SDCard of MP3 by
that the birds can get used to listening to the same sounds and using a PC. The amplifier increases the signal level (predators’
can continue to fly on the field oblivious to the sounds. The same calls and special sounds level) for speakers. We used 12V solar
result can show Gas Cannons bird and animal repeller system panel because of the working voltage of battery, amplifier and
(Figure 2b) because it also always makes the same sound using speaker is 12V and other parts use the power of Arduino.
gas for some period of time.

Fig. 4. Full view of the bird repeller system design from different sides.
The full constructed design of the bird repeller system is
shown in Figure 4. The device, solar panel, and solar charge
Fig. 2. Bird control devices. (a) Sonic Bird Controller. (b) Gas Cannon controller have seted on tripod.
 IV. SOFTWARE SOLUTION AND ALGORITHMS Considering these situations, our algorithm is quite simple as
Unlike other projects to get around some limitations, we shown in Algorithm 1.
decided to pay attention for software solution to improve the
effectiveness of scarer system. First of all, we decided to play
sounds only when our device detects any birds. To detect birds
we use two kinds of sensors in our experiment. Secondly, we
decided to create our own algorithm to play sounds, we can call
it a new method to play sounds. As we know there are two major
methods to play sounds such as single and random playing
sound methods and these two methods have been used in
previous projects. Of course, these projects have been effective
in establishing in some garden and etc, but after a while birds or
wild animals get used to listening single playing or randomly
playing sounds. For example, birds can used to listen same
sounds by same playing methods all time, so they may no longer
be afraid of the sounds. Considering these situations our
algorithm gives a command to play special sound which did not
play for a long time. Our algorithm works considering time
interval between returning of birds and we tried to create cases
when the algorithm can give to play special sound (Table 1). The
red marks on the table mean that algorithm gave a command to
play special sound.
Table 1. All situations when special sound can play.
№ Cases Explanations
The algorithm gives
a command to play
special sound, when
birds or wild
1 animals return to the
area and the time
interval of returns
decreases tree times

In this case the

algorithm does not
give a command to
play special sound,
2 because the time V. CONCLUSION
interval of returns is
increasing gradually In this paper, we have introduced the concept of a bird
repeller system such as a device and its design which applies a
stimulus to the wild birds as a control function. We have
The algorithm gives considered the effect of sound stimuli on the birds but have had
a command to play questions due to habituation. And we have considered the option
special sound to
change the situation
of several types of sounds and playing methods (as shown in
as shown in the Table 1).
3 graph. The line
graph gives
Our future work has a number of different directions and
information that the different locations. We will work on image processing to detect
time interval birds and animals and we will conduct several physical
fluctuate in several experiments. We also wish to create new algorithms using
period. machine learning to make effective repeller system which will
In this case the lead to new and improved models. These models will lead to a
algorithm gives a
second command to better understanding of wild animals and control at the
play another special individual and group level.
4 sound when the time
interval continues ACKNOWLEDGMENT
decreasing after first
special sound.
This research was supported by Basic Science Research
Program through the National Research Foundation of
Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education
(2015R1D1A3A01017601).
 REFERENCES
[1] C. Saglam and F. Onemli, “The effects of sowing date and sowing density
on birds damage in the cultivators of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)”,
Journal of Tekirdag Agricultural Faculty, 2 (1), pp. 50-57, 2005.
[2] Bomford, M and O’Brien, R H (1990). “Sonic Deterrents in Animal
damage Control: A Review of Device Tests and Effectiveness”. Wild .
Soc. Bull 18:411-422
[3] R. W. Summers, “The effect of scarers on the presence of starlings
(Sturnus vulgaris) in cherry orchards”, Crop Protection 4 (4), pp. 520-
528, 1985.
[4] M. L. Avery, S. J. Werner, J. L. Cummings, J. S. Humphrey, M. P.
Milleson, C. J. Carlson, T. M. Primus and M. J. Goodall, “Caffeine for
reducing bird damage to newly seeded rice”, Crop Protection, vol. 24, pp.
651-657, 2005.
[5] Vikrant Rajesh Suryawanshi. (10, October 2015), " Design, Manufacture
and Test of a Solar Powered Audible Bird Scarer", International Journal
of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064

View publication stats