The US state of Alaska has hired a 'robot dog' to stop wild animals from invading the runway at Fairbanks International Airport.
The Verge reported on the 2nd (local time) that the robot dog 'Aurora' is scheduled to be deployed on the runway at Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska, USA. Robot dogs are chargeable for chasing away migratory birds and wild animals for the aim of runway safety. They patrol by disguising themselves as top predators resembling coyotes and foxes.
Aurora was developed based on the four-legged robot ‘Spot’ from Boston Dynamics, a robotics company acquired by Hyundai Motor Group. The value is about 70,000 dollars (about 97 million won). The funds to buy the robot were obtained from federal grants secured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Alaska State Highway Department.
It is claimed that they initially considered using drones to spray insect repellent to thrust back wild animals, however it was judged that this is able to have a negative impact on the ecosystem, so robot dogs were introduced. The Alaska Department of Transportation plans to check how large animals resembling bears and moose react.
“Border collies need food and training, and useful data can’t be collected individually,” said Alaska Representative Ryan Marler.
There have been some opinions that it will be more economical to release real dogs on the airport quite than deploy expensive robot dogs, but the reason is that robot dogs are more practical in the long run.
Nevertheless, in the US, the image of 'killer robots' is so strong that some opposing opinions have emerged. Because of this, the state government released images of Aurora dancing through Instagram and in addition posted an introduction saying, “We now have officially hired her.”
He also emphasized that human monitors will accompany the robot until it is set that autonomous patrol is fully possible.
Meanwhile, in response to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, about 92 cases of injury attributable to wild animal attacks were reported near Alaska airports last 12 months.
Reporter Park Chan cpark@aitimes.com