Biologically and Environmentally Robust Non-Lethal Aversion Robotic Device (BERNARD)

Of the Federal land owned by US agencies, the land owned by the Department of Defense (DoD) and US Forest Service house the most species designated as federally threatened or endangered by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Military installations are mandated by the ESA and Sikes Act to take proactive measures to conserve protected wildlife on their lands. Predators are often a major threat to protected species, yet there are challenges with current predator control methods, such as hiring biologists, which is expensive and does not scale, and lethal tactics, which disrupt ecosystems and cannot be used for protected predators. To overcome these challenges, Charles River Analytics proposes to design and prototype the Biologically and Environmentally Robust Non-Lethal Aversion Robotic Device (BERNARD). BERNARD is an animatronic prey decoy designed for extended deployments in natural environments. It is equipped with context-aware, non-lethal aversion strategies, such as light, sound, and vibration, to train predators from preying on specific species. The software and mechanical components are modular by design to adapt to a variety of species. BERNARD is a low-cost, scalable, and flexible solution that can gather data on a large scale and provide rich insights into a wide range of predator-prey relationships.