Volkswagen readying anti-roo device

After three years of research and development, Volkswagen Group Australia is ready to commence moving vehicle trials of an advanced kangaroo deterrent system for its vehicles.

Dubbed ‘RooBadge’, the system employs GPS-based kangaroo distribution data along with a unique 17cm circular shield that replaces the conventional VW badge on the front of Volkswagen vehicles to emits a blend of high-frequency artificial and natural sounds to ward off kangaroos.

The new tech was designed in conjunction with WIRES and the University of Melbourne in a bid to save wildlife. Stage four trials are now set to begin, using real kangaroos, following permission from the university’s Office of Research Ethics and Integrity.

While the RooBadge should minimise wildlife deaths and injuries, the German car-maker says it will also save hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicle damage, since collisions with kangaroos are said to comprise around 90 per cent of on-road wildlife accidents Down Under.

Connected to an in-car app and calibrated with the vehicle’s GPS co-ordinates, the RooBadge system is loaded with kangaroo distribution data – areas of the country identified to be heavily inhabited by roos.

On approach, the system will emit a warning signal to deter kangaroos, using unique audio to target different kangaroo species.

“[RooBadge does] something no kangaroo deterrent has been able to do before,” said Melbourne University associate professor, Graeme Coulson.

“It’s difficult to produce a single sound that will deter all kangaroos, because the species are different to each other. Using advancement in car technology we can change the sound deterrent by GPS location,” said Coulson.

“We have worked on sounds that will be meaningful to Eastern Grey kangaroos, things like dingo calls, alarm calls made by birds and the alarm thumps that kangaroos make to warn each other. We will then be able to tweak the sound for other species.”

Volkswagen Australia commercial vehicles director, Ryan Davies, said collisions with kangaroos can be devastating and so investing time and energy into the RooBadge project is the right thing to do.

“It is not easily forgotten once seen, and certainly not if experienced,” he said.

“Then there’s the possibility of a front-on collision with an approaching vehicle at country road speeds when one driver is trying to avoid striking a kangaroo. These are even more likely to have a fatal human outcome.”

The University of Melbourne is confident the RooBadge could help deter other types of wildlife in the future, including deer, which are less common in Australia than Europe but are similar in size and likely have similar hearing ranges.

“Roadkill is a problem all around the world,” said Dr Helen Bender.

“What’s interesting about deer relative to kangaroos is that they’re very similar in body size, head size and ear size. What we know from science is that the ear shape in the head shape tells us that they probably have similar hearing. ranges. So, whatever we learn has transferability to the deer as well.”

It's not yet clear when RooBadge will be available to customers of Volkswagen vehicles in Australia, or if the technology will be available to other car-makers.

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