Helping an innovative SME soar

If you see what you think is a bird of prey near a large building, it could be a robot. The Scottish SME Robop Ltd produces robots designed to look, move and sound like a peregrine falcon to discourage nesting birds and protect them from man-made pollution hazards.

As part of the NCC’s SME Boost programme, we helped the company move from a labour-intensive process for hand-made composite body parts to a much faster and more cost-effective method. After protoyping different materials and methods, the project found that not only could production time be significantly cut with simple manufacturing techniques, but the resulting products were stronger and up to 36% lighter. This is very much an advantage for a robotic falcon that needs to fly whilst withstanding years of weathering in exposed locations.

Robop are now looking at what other components can be manufactured using the method developed by the NCC, as well as looking to see if they can bring the manufacturing in-house, which would allow them to upskill their workforce and save costs.

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