Frontiers in Plant Science (Sep 2024)
An experimental study of acoustic bird repellents for reducing bird encroachment in pear orchards
Abstract
Bird invasion will reduce the yield of high-value crops, which threatens the healthy development of agricultural economy. Sonic bird repellent has the advantages of large range, no time and geographical restrictions, and low cost, which has attracted people’s attention in the field of agriculture. At present, there are few studies on the application of sonic bird repellents in pear orchards to minimize economic losses and prolong the adaptive capacity of birds. In this paper, a sound wave bird repellent system based on computer vision is designed, which combines deep learning target recognition technology to accurately identify birds and drive them away. The neural network model that can recognize birds is first trained and deployed to the server. Live video is captured by an installed webcam, and the sonic bird repellent is powered by an ESP-8266 relay switch. In a pear orchard, two experimental areas were divided into two experimental areas to test the designed sonic bird repellent device, and the number of bad fruits pecked by birds was used as an indicator to evaluate the bird repelling effect. The results showed that the pear pecked fruit rate was 6.03% in the pear orchard area that used the acoustic bird repeller based on computer recognition, 7.29% in the pear orchard area of the control group that used the acoustic bird repeller with continuous operation, and 13.07% in the pear orchard area that did not use any bird repellent device. While acoustic bird repellers based on computer vision can be more effective at repelling birds, they can be used in combination with methods such as fruit bags to reduce the economic damage caused by birds.
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