Pest control firm Rentokil Initial is looking into using drones for bird pest control, according to the firm’s global director of enterprise, Anthony Meadows.
Meadows, who was speaking at Computing‘s Enterprise Mobility and Application Management Summit 2015 , said that the company has to carry out a lot of ‘bird work’, and that it is looking into the use of drones as an alternative control method.
“Instead of having to get a ladder out, we could send a drone up with a camera,” he told delegates.
Meadows was taking part in a discussion around the Internet of Things (IoT), which he believes is “huge” for the pest control company.
He said one of the projects the firm is currently working on is ensuring that pest boxes have sensors so that workers know when a rodent has been caught.
“It’s not easy to get a mouse in a box. What that means for us when it comes to providing services is that you have to check every box which can be a very time-consuming process, meaning that we aren’t using our time [efficiently] to help customers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paul Dooley, head of IT business partnering central services at the London Borough of Camden, explained that there were several IoT projects on the go in the public sector, one of which was focused on parking.
“There is a lot about street furniture and what we can do with intelligent traffic lights, intelligent bus stops which show how many people are waiting, intelligent bins, and then there are apps which tell you where to park,” he explained.
Dooley said that the council’s view is that these apps can help users to find parking more swiftly. However, he said that the result of the app was that more people would be using the bays.
“The bay is more advertised and used more. So people may park for an hour or two but they will leave before their time is up, so [the council] can get more people in. So they are returning more than they yield,” he said.
Source: Computing