Killing Rats with GPS

techmaven writes "When Channel Islands National Park officials needed an estimated about 300 rats exterminated on the east side of environmentally sensitive Anacapa Island, Aspen Ag Helicopters got the call. The kill was necessary because the rodents, descendants of rats that reached the island by way of a shipwreck a century or more ago, were decimating the populations of two rare seabirds. And GPS helped the helicopter company do the job."

Comments

Remote Control

[XBL]

I want GPS on my TV remote control, so I can find it.

the problem with this

[Monkelectric]

If they miss just a male and a female rat, the new rats will breed and the offspring will be immune to GPS :=)

Alternatives to GPS extermination

[Ilan Volow]

They could have just wrecked a second ship that happened to contain several hundred cats.

Re:A little overstated?

[morcheeba]

Although I tried to find evidence on Aspen's site, it wasn't much use (I think they just win an award for terseness - particularily their history). There was some more info on Trimble's website. The AgGPS 132 is the receiver used - it uses satellite-based private subscription differential correction services and the public WAAS.

My initial guess was that the system computer-controlled the sprayers, so that when the GPS system detected that the aircraft was over the correct field and over a not-already-sprayed area, it would trigger the sprayers. To compensate for overlap, some individual sprayer jets may not fire so as to not re-apply over the same area.

But that thinking was all wrong. The Trimflight 3 brochure pdf describes the system very well - it's a precise guidance system aimed at cropdusters-- it includes measuring the field, determining a coverage pattern, guiding the pilot through that coverage pattern (with the help of a lightbar to indicate how far off-track they are), and then doing the recordkeeping to record what was sprayed where. It interfaces to a Crophawk flowmeter, but doesn't look like it controls the flow. This brochure also shows a helicopter doing application - the spray looks like a normal fixed-wing spray; I'm not sure why the downwash isn't blowing it all over!