What is ?

DTBird^® is a self-working system developed to detect flying birds and to take programmed actions linked to real-time bird detection.

Bird detection is based in artificial vision, a technology used in military applications.

DTBird^® is a trademark of Liquen, a leading Spanish environmental consulting firm specialized in renewable energies.

DTBird^® has come to reality thanks to a collaborative effort of biologists, engineers, and conservationists.

How does work?

DTBird^® has a modular design, and every module has a specific function, that is controlled by a central Analysis unit.

• DTBird^® Detection continuously monitors surveillance area and detects flying birds in real time.
• DTBird^® Dissuasion emits warning and dissuasion signals to birds flying in moderate/high collision risk areas.
• DTBird^® Stop Control sends a stop signal to the wind turbine according to collision risk of birds.
• DTBird^® Collision Control detects and records potential collisions.
  

Data produced by every module and environmental variables are recorded in real time, and service reports, available on line, analyzes the recorded data.

Which are the applications of  ?

DTBird^® has a flexible modular design, developed for a wide variety of applications:

• Bird monitoring, required for environmental and scientific studies, and development projects.
• Reduction of bird mortality due to collisions with human structures (wind turbines, power lines, towers, buildings...).
• Bird control in human facilities (airports, fish farms, historical buildings) and rural areas (farms, crop fields).

Each application of DTBird^® has a specific configuration of modules:

APPLICATION		DTBird® Detection	DTBird® Dissuasion	DTBird® Stop Control	DTBird® Collision Control
Bird monitoring	Environmental and scientific studies
	Projected wind farms (onshore & offshore)
	Power lines
	Human facilities
Bird mortality reduction	Operating wind farms (onshore & offshore)
	Power lines
	Towers
	Buildings
Bird control	Airports
	Fish farms
	Historical buildings
	Rural areas (farms, crop fields)

Why  ?

The human interest in the automatic detection of birds has two major roots:

• Bird strikes with aircrafts (Dolber, 2009; FAA, 2009).
• Bird mortality due to collision with human structures (Erickson, 2005; Manville, 2005): towers (Kerlinger, 2000), power lines (Bevanger, 1998), and wind turbines (Smallwood, 2005, 2008), mainly.

Both have pushed the development of technologies for detection of flying birds.

The “oldest” technology in use nowadays is the Radar. According to Nohara (In operating wind farms, it is crucial an accurate detection of flying birds in real time, a difficult task. Very early, in the nineties, Kenetech (one of the world's largest wind energy companies in that time) launched a project focused in the development of a system to detect flying birds and to regulate accordingly wind farm operation, but the company had a sudden bankruptcy.

Along nineties, similar operating modes were formulated. It was described an operating mode based in acoustic monitoring, and stop of wind turbine linked to real-time detection of birdcalls (

Evans, 2000. pp. 141-151 in Wind Power Planning Meeting III, 2000); another operation mode was based in radar and camera monitoring, and warning systems linked to real-time bird detection (Cooper, 1995). At the beginning of our century, similar methods based in real time bird detection with Radar were described (Ronconi, 2004), linked to wind turbine stop and bird deterrence were proposed to reduce bird collisions.

So long, it has been evident to ornithologists and engineers that a suitable detection device could perform basic operations to reduce bird collisions with wind turbines (wind turbine stop.and bird deterrence, for example). But the invention of a suitable detection device has been a major problem, and Radar or acoustic devices have not been able to afford bird detection in real time with the required accuracy and precision. DTBird^® has been developed to perform this task.

DTBird^® is a new technology of bird detection, based in artificial vision, a technology used in military applications. DTBird^® overcomes Radar and acoustic devices limitations, and it is able to perform  tasks linked to real-time bird detection.

Some remarkably advantages of DTBird^® are the following.

• Bird detection 20 times faster than Radar.
• Detection area, from a few meters to 1 km (including collision risk areas around wind turbine, where Radar is limited or not usable at all).
• Real time actions linked to bird detection, as dissuasion or warning of birds in collision risk areas and wind turbine stop.
• Easy installation, easy maintenance, low power consumption and economic solution from one wind turbine.

The development of DTBird^® started in 2005. At the beginning of 2009, first prototype was installed in a wind farm. In 2011, DTBird^® is working in wind farms of Spain and Italy, and it is able to perform the following tasks:

• Detection of flying birds in real time.
• Warning and dissuasion of birds flying in collision risk areas.
• Wind turbine stop, linked to bird detection.
• Detection and record of potential collisions.

Throughout the development process, DTBird^® has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and its implementation in wind farms has been recommended by SEO/BirdLife.