Design of the future bird repelling laser aiming device

Abstract

In this MSc thesis report, the process of developing a laser aiming solution for the purpose of bird repelling will be described. This process consists roughly of five phases: Setting up requirements, generating concepts, picking and developing a single concept, building and finally testing this concept.

The current laser aiming solution is not satisfactory for many applications where safety is critical. The laser technology used by Bird Control Group to repel the birds can be dangerous to the human eye under certain circumstances. Therefore, a more accurate aiming solution is required.

A concept where the source is stationary and the laser beam is reflected with a mirror is chosen over a moving source configuration, as the moving mass in that configuration is much lower (around 4% of the moving source configuration). This means the system can reach much higher speeds and react to higher frequency input signals due to the higher eigenfrequencies of the system.

The completed prototype proved to be two orders of magnitude more accurate than the current solution, while also being much faster when required. Both of these factors and other factors contributed to the success of this project.