Deres
Very smart. An innovation that as such direct advantages will surely succeed. Airport already use real raptor so less costly robotic raptors will surely encounter success.
Odin Thorleifsson
I imagine that the military would be interested in adopting a surveillance drone with such awesome disguise capabilities.
James Smith
Very impressive. Almost as effective as putting a pair of real falcons in the area.
A mated pair of the Peregrines would do the trick at less cost and even better, provide their own replacements.
Ash Mills
This will make drones that much harder to spot...(once they can be programmed to hover..)
Larry McInnes
I can't believe the military hasn't already built this. Just attach a bomb.
the.other.will
Different forms for different functions. The bird shape & behavior frightens other birds. Military drones are difficult to spot in practice because of the combination of size & altitude. Shape doesn't matter very much if something is far enough away.
Bob Flint
So how long does it fly, before the nuisance birds come back, and they will in any weather.
Are you planning on permanently having an operator stationed nearby to charge, maintain, & repair?
Get the real thing, self sufficient.
kalqlate
PERFECT application for IBM's True North / SyNAPSE chip. Drones of all types will reach new autonomous capabilities with neuromorphic designs like SyNAPSE. In fact, True north, with one million synthetic neurons and 256 million synthetic synapses, is estimated to have the capacity for bee-like intelligence. Bees, with their tiny brains, can do some amazing things like fly (duh), locate, optimize, and share knowledge about flight paths to food. Collectively, they can build hives, ward off enemies, kill enemies, even kill people (gulp). Imagine what a robotic falcon or other drone could do with a bee brain.
Capacity of a bee brain, of course, is only the beginning. In a few short years, the chip will be shrunk and improved to have the capacity of a cat brain, except enhanced with fluent speech and all kinds of interfacing with our smart phones to infuse our computing tasks with intelligence.
Next stop, Watson in your pocket, initially operating in the cloud, then operating offline and independently in gadgets and robotic appliances EVERYWHERE!
Leithauser
Maybe these can solve the problem of birds flying into windmills and getting smashed and concentrated solar collectors and getting fried.
Ramesh Chouhan
This bird or "Robird" is not new. Called the Ornithopter, flapping wing vehicles have been around for over ten years now. The best and the first successful design was by Sean Kinkade, USA. Unfortunately Sean died in an accident last year. One of Sean's plans was to have them used in deterring real birds from the vicinities of Airfields. Sean and I worked on design that included a 450 gram payload and drop capability. Any way, all the best to the entrepreneur.