The farms near the Kisarazu City in Japan have been protected by a robot wolf for the past eight months. The official name of the robot wolf is “Super Monster Wolf”. Engineers designed it to scare the animals from eating the farmer’s crops. However, by the looks of it, it sure has scared the local residents as well. The story of the robot is a little sad. According to a report, the wolves went extinct in the early 1800s when a state-sponsored eradication campaign begun. As a result, the population of deer and wild boar enhanced in the area and they started to eat farmer’s rice and chestnut crops.
To scare off the animals from eating the crops, farmers finally decided to build a robotic wolf so that they can replace the species that they killed themselves. The first test of the robot wolf was a great success and indeed surprising for everyone. As a result of the success, the robot wolf will be entering the mass production phase in the coming year.
The tests showed that the wolf has an effective radius of only one kilometer. This makes it much more effective than an electric fence. The Japan Agricultural Cooperative, Chihiko Umezawa, said that anything outside that radius needs to be dealt with more wolves since they are immobile. A robot wolf is available for sale in $4840. The price is a little high but since the whole species was eradicated, this is how much it will cost now to replace it.
The robot measures 2.2 feet in length which is almost the same size as an actual robot. It also has gangly hair and white fangs. The robot wolf uses solar-rechargeable batteries and detects intruders with its infrared ray sensors. Once the robot wolf senses a creature nearby, it uses different sounds like a gunshot, a howl, a human voice and, frightens away the animals. If any humans also enter the vicinity, they will also be frightened by the sound of gunshots. However, the robot is still worth it if it’s keeping the animals off the crops.