Design and development of solar-powered ultrasonic bat deterrent system for sustainable fruit farming

Abstract

Industrial fruit farming is generally done in a huge open field, which of fers a large area for plants to grow. These orchards are maintained with high precision and with the timely application of fertilizers and pesticides to ensure higher crop yield. But across the globe, mostly in countries which are situated in tropical and subtropical regions (such as India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, etc.), fruit orchards that cultivate fruits such as Mango, Guava, Banana, Lychee, and fig attract frugivorous bats in harvest time. These bats consume the fruits and cause significant harvest loss [1]. Although harvest loss due to bats is a major problem, farmers cannot eliminate these pests because they are an endangered species and help agricultural activities such as pollination [2]. Therefore, farmers need an effective method to prevent bats from entering fruit orchards without harming them. This Design project focuses on de signing a bat deterrent system that is expected to turn on automatically at night and emit an ultrasonic acoustic field that both echolocating and non-echolocating bats are sensitive to.