PN Futura » News » Flocks of drones could scare birds away from future aircraft

A concept that proposes drones as a way to guide (or scare) birds aways from airport runways in the direction of a safe haven is one of several ideas shortlisted for Airbus' biennial Fly Your Ideas student challenge.

The competition, run in partnership with Unesco, looks for pioneering ideas that have the potential to solve one of six key problems Airbus has identified within the aviation industry. Five finalists have been identified and one will walk away with a prize of €30,000 (£21,400).

The drone-guided birdport concept was proposed by a team of students from the University of Tokyo. It suggests using a flock of unmanned aerial vehicles to intercept birds that may be headed towards airports and divert them to a comfortable habitat -- a "birdport" -- nearby. The drones would have to use various tactics that mimic the birds' natural behaviours, including the three rules of flocking -- separation, alignment and cohesion -- to control them. The idea is obviously intended to reduce the number of bird strikes to aircraft.

Students from Northwestern Polytechnical University in China have developed a novel method for reducing the turnaround time of aircraft between flights, as well as the cost of damage to aircraft incurred during taxiing.

Airbus

By applying motion-sensing technology from a games console -- we presume Microsoft Kinect, or a similar system -- to an aircraft's guidance system, the ground crew and pilot could be warned of high-risk obstacles that the aircraft may otherwise come into contact with. The infrared sensors would be placed at the tips of the wings to ensure the aircraft was able to fully navigate around obstacles without clipping them.

Another wing-based technology solution has been developed by students from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. They propose coating plane wings with a composite skin capable of harvesting energy from their natural vibrations and flex during flight. Piezoelectric fibres in the coating would gather electrical charges from these movements and store them in battery panels in the plane's fuselage. This energy could then be used to power in-flight lighting and entertainments systems. The overarching aim of the project would be to reduce the energy footprint of each aircraft during flight.

Airbus

A second energy-harvesting plan comes from students at City University in London, who proposed placing power pads underneath runway tarmac that can pick up energy during taxiing. They could transfer electricity inductively from the ground to the plane, using a receiver placed on the aircraft's undercarriage. The students estimate that this would reduce carbon emissions on the ground by half by providing a sustainable energy source to power ground operations.

Airbus

Not all of the shortlisted ideas are solely based on adapting aircrafts' external areas however. One solution, entitled Retrotrolley from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil tackles the issue of cutting down on in-flight waste and the time it takes to collect it. The team of students has designed a bespoke trolley that can sort rubbish and recycle intelligently. This will minimise the volume of foils, paper, plastic and residual fluid. The outcome of this will be that galley equipment can be reduced by up to 30kg, reducing fuel consumption and allowing more space for refreshments.