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A truly and unique robotic bird of prey for a long-term effective and safe bird control management of airports

Project description

Managing bird control at airports safely, efficiently and compassionately

Collisions between birds and aircraft pose a serious threat to passenger and aircraft safety, causing millions in damages, costly delays, and even injury or death. Many current methods of bird strike prevention at airports only offer short-term solutions, while others are inhumane. The EU-funded ROBIRD project intends to develop a scalable business model and validate prototypes for a novel remote-controlled robotic falcon designed to ward off bird populations in airfields. Not only will it contribute to increased flight safety, but it will cut damage expenses and costs of bird control without harming wildlife. It also has the potential to benefit agriculture and the oil and gas industry.

Objective

The aviation industry spends up to 7 billion euros per year on bird strike damage and delays and there is an average of more than twenty thousand bird strikes annually. Bird activity in airport environments creates a collision hazard for aircraft. Thus, bird strikes present an operational and commercial risk to aircraft and airport operators. As airspace is getting busier, and most large airports now operating close to their maximum operational capacity – there is need to eliminate anything that can impact their operational efficiency in any way. Clear Flight Solutions offers bird control services with the unique Robird® technology, an environmentally-friendly safe and cost-effective solution for all bird related problems at airports. Robirds are remotely controlled robotic birds designed in looks and flight pattern to mimic a Falcon. The main purpose of the bird’s appearance and flight pattern is to create a fear of predation in the resident birds at target location. At Airports birds will start to see the area as a dangerous area reducing the risk of bird strikes during flight operations by 75% due to a long-term reduction of bird presence and bird pressure by up to 99%. During migratory periods, it becomes easier to herd birds away from the airport as our innovation can control birds in the air. Future market applications are: The agricultural sector in which Robird® has been proven to result in a 20% increase in crop yields and the Oil and Gas industry, in which Robird® reduces bird population by 90-99% and prevents bird nesting by 99%. After ROBIRD industrialisation and internationalisation we envision to surpass a turnover of €22 million with a profit margin of 60% by year five with airport projects providing 80% of turnover. To reach this objective we require €1.85 million (70% covered by applying for a SMEInstrument phase 2). However, at this pointof we have to asses the technical, financial and commercial viability of the proyect to ensure market success.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

CLEAR FLIGHT SOLUTIONS BV
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
INSTITUTENWEG 25
7521PH ENSCHEDE
Netherlands

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Oost-Nederland Overijssel Twente
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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