OMGosh! This is too cool for words. A wolf robot has been created in Japan that will stand out in any farmer’s field and scare away all the wild animals that want to trespass. It protects their crops from being eaten. The wolf was created by a Hokkaido company that developed it to keep away bears and deer. They let the Kisarazu City Agricultural Cooperative borrow it for free for eight months to test it in rice and chestnut fields near the city of Kisarazu. And the wolfbot passed with flying colors.
They dubbed it ‘Super Monster Wolf’. It stands about 1 ½ ft tall, which is often shorter than the crops, but when it detects an animal around, using its infrared ray sensor, it lets out a most horrendous howling. And since the wolf is the natural enemy of the wild boars and deer, that like to eat those crops, it has been very effective. Its size is actually close to the size of wolves.
But the wolf is now extinct in Japan, due to a state-sponsored eradication campaign in the early 1800’s. Now parts of Japan are overrun with deer and wild boar and they love to eat rice and chestnuts. Farmers have been losing up to a ton of crops each year to them. But now comes the wolfbot and the farmers around Kisarazu are reporting that loss to be decreasing to nearly zero. Way to go Super Monster Wolf.
Some people think the animals will get used to the wolfbot and start getting into the crops again. But the Ota Seiki Co., who will be manufacturing the bot here shortly, says that will not happen because the wolf is the natural enemy of the boars and deer. That’s their reason for making the bot look like a wolf. They’re counting on that to keep those pests away.
The wolfbot proved to have an effective radius of around .62 miles, which is making it more effective than an electric fence. But Chihiko Umezawa, of the Japan Agricultural Cooperative, says if you want anything more than that at this time, you’ll have to get more of them because, for the time being, the bot is immobile. But you can get one for around $4,840.00. Or the company will rent it out for more affordable leasing options. No word yet on whether the wolfbot scarecrow will be available in the U.S.
The beastie has a little mane of grizzly looking hair around its neck and a rubber mask with an impressive set of fangs in a mouth held open for maximum effect. And red eyes when its sensors go off. It sustains its own self with solar rechargeable batteries.
The Super Monster Wolf does have a range of noises it uses sometimes. Quite loudly. Among a whole list of other noises, it will bark and growl, but it can also sound like a gunshot, or a human voice shouting at them to get out. But unfortunately any person walking by also gets an increase in heart rate when that occurs.
Scarecrows have been used widely around our world since almost the beginning of agriculture, and they have been quite effective. . . for a time. Animals are clever little beasts and eventually figure out the scary things don’t move, so they take to ignoring them. Go back to their dining. But there has not been anything like the Super Monster Wolf, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
Robot Aficionado 