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UAS to remove uninhabited bird nest

Nitz

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Joined
Feb 4, 2018
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PNW - Washington State
I was approached by one of our engineers asking if a UAS could be used to remove an uninhabited birds nest.
We've contacted natural resources, fish and wildlife regarding regulations / permitting; they stated that as long as we can verify the nest is uninhabited and doesn't show signs of use there are no issues.

With that out of the way, I thought it would be a good use case for a UAS, but I can't find any research/documents/cases where anyone has attempted to learn from.

I'm wondering if anyone here has attempted something like this? or mounted custom attachments to their UAS to poke, push, pull something. If so, what was your design? Materials? etc.
 
Depends on how clear your access is to the nest. Is there overhanging foliage? My recommendation is not to attempt it mainly because a birds nest is usually not just sitting there on a branch. A nest is usually entwined in the living twigs of the tree. PersonalIy, wouldn't risk a grappling hook attached to my drone being snagged and unable to release. Does anyone recognize what type of birds nest it might be? Can you locate a Google image that looks like it?
 
That's a very interesting question. In our area eagles and hawks build nests on power polls. I could see some real potential hazards attempting to remove a nest from power polls. As for nests in trees, as already stated I think it could be a nightmare.
 
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*Update*
My father-in-law and I went and tested some designs this weekend. I would highly recommend NOT attempting to 'push' anything with a drone.
On all our attempts to push, the objects we used on the front (we used a small wooden dowel, then an aluminum tent pole) resulted in the moment the object made contact it the drone didn't 'push' anymore but turned the object into a lever action causing the drone to go upside down and crash. We realized after our testing that because the quad-copter gets it momentum from tipping forward, essentially the push motion accentuates that movement causing it to go end over end. It seems like a 'no kidding', but it never occurred to me.

I wanted to pass along - don't try to 'push' with a quadcopter unless you heavily weigh down the rear. :)
On the plus side, we did find out the P3P does great at pulling and lifting small objects.
 
That's a very interesting question. In our area eagles and hawks build nests on power polls. I could see some real potential hazards attempting to remove a nest from power polls. As for nests in trees, as already stated I think it could be a nightmare.

It's an uninhabited cormorant nest on one of our transmission towers, so similar to what you're mentioning.
It seems like this is a common problem in our industry, so I really want to look into some ideas.

One idea that my father-in-law had was attaching a robotic claw. It looks like that would be an awesome attachment, so I'm looking into it further.
Essentially, there are aluminum claws with some decent gripping power that once it's attached the P3P was amazing at pulling so I'm thinking that could be the solution.

If anyone has any experience with robotics, any help would be greatly appreciated. My idea is to build a 2.4ghz transmitter and switch that I could mount/attach to a P3P remote. Then, I would need to attach the claw, arm, receiver, and battery to the drone. It will be interesting :)
 
I see some real potential problems with that. First of all if the drone doesn't have the ability to lift the nest you would need a way of disengaging you line, other wise the drone would become permanent fixture with the nest. High voltage power lines put off a strong magnetic field, I'm wondering what potential effect that could have on the drones software or computer.
Personally I don't think I would want to mess with it.
 
*Update*
My father-in-law and I went and tested some designs this weekend. I would highly recommend NOT attempting to 'push' anything with a drone.
On all our attempts to push, the objects we used on the front (we used a small wooden dowel, then an aluminum tent pole) resulted in the moment the object made contact it the drone didn't 'push' anymore but turned the object into a lever action causing the drone to go upside down and crash. We realized after our testing that because the quad-copter gets it momentum from tipping forward, essentially the push motion accentuates that movement causing it to go end over end. It seems like a 'no kidding', but it never occurred to me.

I wanted to pass along - don't try to 'push' with a quadcopter unless you heavily weigh down the rear. :)
On the plus side, we did find out the P3P does great at pulling and lifting small objects.
Thank you for the testing. Nothing like using the right tool for the right job!!!:eek:
I'd try removing a nest w/ someone else's drone in a heart beat :D
 
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It's an uninhabited cormorant nest on one of our transmission towers, so similar to what you're mentioning.
It seems like this is a common problem in our industry, so I really want to look into some ideas.

One idea that my father-in-law had was attaching a robotic claw. It looks like that would be an awesome attachment, so I'm looking into it further.
Essentially, there are aluminum claws with some decent gripping power that once it's attached the P3P was amazing at pulling so I'm thinking that could be the solution.

If anyone has any experience with robotics, any help would be greatly appreciated. My idea is to build a 2.4ghz transmitter and switch that I could mount/attach to a P3P remote. Then, I would need to attach the claw, arm, receiver, and battery to the drone. It will be interesting :)
"transmission towers" I predict a bad ending....
 
"transmission towers" I predict a bad ending....
To be honest, I've done a few flights around transmission towers without much issue. Granted, i kept a good standoff distance (15ft) and these were only 115kv lines, so not the 230-500kV lines that are out there. I also had our senior engineer onsite with me ,but "Trust me, I'm a professional!" :)

That being said, I do agree that if you're not in the utility business or have electric knowledge heed the advice and keep your drone away. While the electrical networks are more 'smart' than in the past ... don't test it by tripping a Transmission Circuit Breaker. :)
 
Thank you for the testing. Nothing like using the right tool for the right job!!!:eek:
I'd try removing a nest w/ someone else's drone in a heart beat :D
Where is your sense of adventure! ;)
Yes, I've learned from my application development days that you never go 'prod and pray' - Run it in DEV first ;)
 
I see some real potential problems with that. First of all if the drone doesn't have the ability to lift the nest you would need a way of disengaging you line, other wise the drone would become permanent fixture with the nest. High voltage power lines put off a strong magnetic field, I'm wondering what potential effect that could have on the drones software or computer.
Personally I don't think I would want to mess with it.

Definitely there are some engineering challenges with the design. I'm going to keep trying as nests are a huge pain in the *** and their poop causes substantial damage to the steel towers.
In regards to the magnetic effects, EPRI recently did a study that found the drones themselves didn't have any issues with a flash over so unless you use a metal framed drone that shouldn't be a concern. In regards to the magnetic field that is one of the challenges I've seen but not experienced. It doesn't fault (short circuit), but does cause the drone to lose accurate GPS and starts to oscillate a bit. Again, never experienced around our 115kV lines but I may be flying at a decent enough standoff where it's not affecting.
 
Since this subject came up I was noticing nests on the big transmission lines on my way home. The birds are building their nests in the center of the towers not on top making it impossible to get a drone in any position to remove it. Personally, I would just use a shotgun in that case. Next week I'll take some pictures and post them for some ideas.
 
Since this subject came up I was noticing nests on the big transmission lines on my way home. The birds are building their nests in the center of the towers not on top making it impossible to get a drone in any position to remove it. Personally, I would just use a shotgun in that case. Next week I'll take some pictures and post them for some ideas.
They must have learned from their mistakes! Smart birds! :cool:
 

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