Bird-Repelling Device for Agricultural Application using Motion Detection

Bird damage is a persistent problem for many Filipino rice farmers, resulting in losses in annual harvest yield. Farmers suffer the challenge of crop damage by birds, and the losses due to agricultural depredation by birds are substantial in gross crop production. This study addresses the problem by deterring wild birds from farm areas. The number of wild bird populations across the two groups used an independent samples t-test using the deterrence rate between a standard scarecrow and the bird-repelling device. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) method was used to build the prototype that underwent controlled space and actual field testing. A half-body mannequin with a metal pole for a stand is the prototype that houses the components. It uses an Arduino MEGA as a micro controller, a speaker that outputs 2 kHz to 16 kHz, a servo motor that sweeps the arms from 0°to 270°, and three PIR motion sensors as input. The device also has a Bluetooth module that notifies the user's phone when the deterrence methods are triggered. The test results show that the prototype has a 73 % and 67% deterrence rate compared to the standard scarecrow deterrence rate of 42 % and 49% in the field testing and controlled environment, respectively. Using independent samples t-test, the result of the prototype field-testing showed a significant effect in decreasing the number of birds in the targeted areas. In contrast, the controlled environment has not significantly changed due to the low population.