VIDEO: ‘Anti-bear robot’ patented in Turkey

ERZURUM

An inventor in an eastern Turkish village has managed to patent a robot that he designed to keep bears away from farms and gardens.

“My hand-made robot shocks bears or boars with 25,000 volts of electricity when it senses they are approaching,” 46-year-old Mustafa Karasungur told Doğan News Agency on Aug. 10 in his hometown, the village of Gölbaşı in Erzurum province.

With its tin hat that protects its “electronic brain,” its beard and sunglasses, and the toy pistol that is taped on its right hand, the robot was made a laughing stock by some Turkish media users. Others defended Karasungur, stressing he at least innovated something with limited resources.

However, the robot apparently electrocutes anything through the chain swinging from its left hand, not limited to wild animals, that approach where it patrols, which makes Karasungur’s dreams of its mass production harder to come true.

“It can also be used as a mobile power supply. It can light a lamp for four hours. And if authorities provide me necessary conditions, I can even produce a Heron,” the inventor who has been tinkering with electronics over the past 30 years said.

The IAI Heron is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle developed in Israel.