Japan unveils net-wielding police drones for air patrol Police in Tokyo are preparing a fleet of drones to police hobbyist aircraft in the city. According to a report from Japan Today, the Metropolitan Police Department has assembled a squad of dozens of officers who will use the police quadcopters to catch and take down unruly drones operating in unsafe or illegal conditions. …
What you're seeing here is another arms race starting, caused by inconsiderate idiots.
Personally, I think the XKCD idea is more viable: place them outside the law other than liability for damage they cause. Anyone who does not have enough braincells to realise the danger they cause by hovering near airports in aviation space and by fires where aircraft are trying to bring water should not only lose the thing but have it compacted and rectally inserted by way of forceful and memorable education.
Ditto for people trying to take a peek in someone else's garden, but I'm wondering if it would not be possible to develop an auto-aiming 10.000 candela torch for that - that's bright enough to reach up to flight height but would still sufficiently disperse not to cause harm to any aircraft in the vicinity (the main issue with lasers). Plus it lights them up nicely for some buckshot, but that's not always possible (I'm not a government, so I don't get to call it "collateral damage" and get away with it).
Same here with the video starting in the middle. And I still couldn't work out why the prop-guards on the "target" didn't prevent the entanglement.
Even then, the probability of escalating from "a drone that might go out of control" to "a drone falling out of control" is approaching 1
It did show it chasing and intercepting the white drone. The person flying the white drone was cooperating so after a few tries the black on managed to snag the white one in the net.
In real life things aren't going to be so easy. Towing a net reduces the maneuverability of the plane so the errant one should be able to avoid it (and if it was truly a 'bad drone' it might have countermeasures of its own). Its also a lot more difficult to maneuver planes to intercept than it looks due to problems with human depth perception (try it!).
I fancy an air war. Could be fun.
It seems to me the way to go is a 'deploy on demand' net. That way the copbot doesn't lose maneuverability until it's ready 'make the kill'. And once the perpbot is snagged, maybe jettison the net with a chute attached, leaving the copbot ready for another deployment, if available.
It seems to me the way to go is a 'deploy on demand' net.
Agree - you could even implement a release mechanism so you could take down multiple drones in one flight by carrying multiple nets. I'd also add a string of chains to dangle underneath, which would help with drones with ducted fans (because they'd be less exposed to being caught with a net).
If they cause a drone to go out of the operator's control, but don't manage to control it themselves (perhaps it falls out of the net somehow) injuring some innocent bystander, this could all become rather unfortunate.
Similarly if the target is heavier than they anticipated and the entire ensemble descends to the ground (the target no longer having any appreciable lift, and the skycop not having enough of it's own for the combined mass) in an unplanned manner, then I don't know if Japan is like the US but I expect everyone involved would rapidly be "lawyering up".
Taking out a drone in this manner will risk dropping it onto anyone beneath it - more dangerous than the drone itself. A responsible police response would be a drone that over-rides the control signals of an errant drone with closer and therefore more powerful signals ordering it down.
Or a net with a parachute or balloons. https://xkcd.com/585/
You can't just override - most of these consumer drones have wifi-based control, encryption is trivial. Some models can be hacked.
You could hit them with a jamming signal though - any decent drone will be designed to either stop dead or safely land if communication is lost. You'd need to give police an exemption to radio regulations so they could wield directional high-power jamming guns that'll likely screw up every wireless network in two hundred meters for a few minutes, but after that it's just a matter of getting a police officer to point the jammer at the drone and keep it pointed until the drone is down.
The cop'copter only won 'cos it is a hexacopter against a quad. Just wait the civvies are armed with octocopters. Mwah haha.
Maybe someone could tie 2 quads together with the controls reversed on the second one and see if if works. These things seem to fly equally well upside down anyway so it should be possible.
Sounds like something thought up by people who haven’t ever flow a "drone"
With added weight (of a net) you lose speed and manoeuvrability due to the extra weight, smaller drones especially 250 class ones would run rings around something like a 450 with an added net to carry around.. it sounds more like a sport waiting to happen.
Its like sending an Austin allegro after a Ferrari. I look forward to the incoming youtube videos...
Methinks the fellas are having fun.
On a more serious note though, bringing down the unwanted drones is not the way to go. Far better would be to follow them to the owner and then file the proper charges against him. Losing a drone is negligible compared to doing time.
Just my (deflated) 5 Euro Cents.
Cheers!
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